US envoy in peace mission to DRCongo region

WASHINGTON - The United States' senior envoy for Africa is shuttling between central African capitals seeking an end to violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the State Department said Monday.

Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson has been in the Great Lakes region of Africa since the weekend trying to end the crisis in North Kivu, where the M23 rebel army has seized a swathe of mineral-rich territory.

"He is joined there by his UK and his French counterparts," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters, adding that the group had already met with President Yoweri Museveni.

"They have met with President Museveni and they are meeting with other regional leaders in an effort to promote a peaceful and sustainable resolution to the conflict," Nuland said.

"They are in Kinshasa today and are going to be going on to Kigali. They will meet with presidents of all countries," she said, referring to the capitals of Joseph Kabila's DR Congo and Paul Kagame's Rwanda.

"We want to see a sustainable process of negotiation and discussion on the status of the eastern Congo with all the stake holders -- Museveni, Kagame and Kabila -- leading this process together," she added.

All three leaders have joined the international community in calling for a ceasefire and for the M23 to withdraw from the territory it has captured and return to its July lines, but trust is in short supply in the region.

AFP