11 Mar, 16:51

Southern African Development Community to hold emergency summit on Congo situation

The conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been smoldering for decades

HARARE, March 11. /TASS/. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) will hold an emergency summit on March 13 of heads of state and government to discuss the current situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the SADC’s press office said in a press release on Tuesday.

"The Southern African Development Community (SADC) will hold an Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government on 13th March, 2025 in a virtual format to discuss the security situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)," the statement reads.

The conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been smoldering for decades. After the Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, and the defeat in the civil war in 1993, part of the Rwandan government army, mostly the Hutu, retreated to Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they came into conflict with the local Tutsi, the Banyamulenge.

After the Tutsi came to power in Rwanda, it came in support for the Banyamulenge. Eventually, the Banyamulenge were joined by Congolese separatists and deserters from the Congolese army to form the M23 group in 2012. Rebel groups, composed primarily of the Tutsi, plunged into hostilities in the east of the DRC in January 2021 and by now they have seized several cities and more than 100 villages in the North Kivu province.

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