Uganda hopes Kabila will “come back to the fold”

Uganda, as chairman of the Joint Military Commission’s political committee - which oversees implementation of the Lusaka peace accord - has said all the signatories to the agreement are committed to the process, except for the DRC government. “It is only the DRC government that wants to leave the Lusaka process,” Uganda’s foreign minister in charge of regional cooperation, Amama Mbabazi, told IRIN on Thursday. He was speaking after chairing the latest political committee meeting in Lusaka last week. “But we hope reason will prevail and Kabila will be back in the fold,” he added. “We hope this will be done sooner rather than later.” Mbabazi stressed that the Lusaka process was the only way to achieve peace. “It is a great miscalculation by Kabila to try and go for the military option,” he said. A government offensive is currently underway in northwest Equateur province. On Tuesday, Rwandan Foreign Minister Andre Bumaya expressed concern over the DRC’s “repeated violations” of the Lusaka accord, the Rwanda News Agency (RNA) reported. “The prospects for the inter-Congolese dialogue remain poor,” Bumaya told diplomats in Kigali. Diplomatic sources have also noted troop movements in the Kabalo sector of Katanga province.