Mayi-Mayi groups doubtful over peace deal

Meanwhile, Mayi-Mayi groups have expressed doubt over a local ceasefire agreement reached last week between Mayi-Mayi representatives and the Congolese Liberation Front (CLF) of Jean-Pierre Bemba in Butembo, North Kivu province. “This media campaign on the fusion of the Mayi-Mayi and Bemba’s people is a fiddle and not to be trusted,” a spokesman for the Mayi-Mayi movement of General Padiri, Parti de resistance nationale (PRN), cautioned. He claimed the “real Mayi-Mayi” did not attend the meeting with Bemba, “whose aim is to give his movement a nationalistic character”. The spokesman said that in the run-up to the inter-Congolese dialogue, all rebel groups and movements were positioning themselves to “legitimise” their campaigns.