GREAT LAKES: IRIN-CEA Update 1,050
RWANDA: Envoy says troops staying in DRC for now
President Paul Kagame's adviser on the Great Lakes region, Patrick
Mazimhaka, said on Thursday that Rwandan troops would remain in Congo
until a proposed independent African peacekeeping force was actually
deployed in the DRC. Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi this week brokered an
agreement under which all foreign armies agreed to withdraw their troops
from DRC, to be replaced by independent troops under a new African
peacekeeping force to be organised by the OAU. After the Libyan talks,
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said his country and Rwanda would pull
out their troops "as soon as possible", to be followed by other foreign
armies, but Mazimhaka told the Associated Press agency (AP) that the
withdrawal would not happen soon. "We are remaining in Congo until such a
force is put together and actually arrives and deploys along our borders
with Congo," it quoted him as saying. The idea of an independent African
force emerged after "it became obvious that the United Nations was not
coming," Mazimhaka added.
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