AU chair calls for dialogue over Congo-Rwanda tensions

Senegal’s President Macky Sall, who chairs the African Union, on Sunday called for dialogue between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda amid tensions over a resurgence of the M23 rebel group.

Last week, DR Congo accused Rwanda of supporting the rebel group in carrying out a military offensive in its eastern borderlands, summoning Kigali’s ambassador and suspending RwandAir flights to Congo.

"I call for calm and dialogue between the two countries, and for the peaceful resolution of the crisis with the support of regional mechanisms and the African Union," Sall tweeted.

Rwanda denied supporting the rebels, who advanced some 12 miles this past week to eastern Congo’s main city of Goma and briefly captured the army’s largest base in the region.

Congo and UN investigators previously accused Kigali of also supporting the M23 during a 2012-2013 insurrection that took Goma before being forced back and chased into Uganda and Rwanda.

Government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said the M23 was a designated terrorist group and that Congo would exclude it from negotiations being held with militia factions in its eastern region.

"A warning was made to the Rwandans, whose attitude is likely to disrupt the peace process... where all the armed groups, except for the M23, are committed to the path to peace," Muyaya said.

Each government regularly accuses the other of backing armed rebel groups it is seeking to quash.