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DRC President Joseph Kabila told journalists in the DRC capital Kinshasa after meeting Mandela that he would attend the Arusha summit at the end of this month [25 February]. He said he would use the occasion to try to persuade the Burundi army to leave the Congo. "The Burundian army is on Congolese soil. It is part of the three armies that are occupying Congolese soil and we need to get those armies out," Reuters quoted him as saying.
"I believe going to Arusha will be one of the ways of trying to persuade these people, especially Burundi, that they don't have any interests in staying in the Congo," Kabila added. Burundi has repeatedly said it is not present as a belligerent in the DRC conflict and that its primary concern is its security. Rather than ensuring Burundi's security, the DRC has been supporting rebel groups involved in Burundi's civil war, it says.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions