Our participation in the meeting of the Synergy of women for Peace and Security in North Kivu
Contribution towards the discussion of Synergy of women Peace and Security in North Kivu, the Democratic Republic of Congo: We want serious military operations to flash out M23/RDF from our territory and if the Government is incapable to do so, they have to tell us clearly.
This woman who said she wanted to stand up in order to address very well her points to the audience during the meeting
Yesterday August 20th, 2024 we joined the meeting of Synergy of Women for Peace and Security in North Kivu which focused on sharing together concrete ideas and suggestions which should be presented to the Governor of North Kivu for lasting peace in the Province.
After meeting his excellency Lorenso the President of Angola who is the African Union facilitator for negotiations between DRC and Rwanda, women wanted also to engage the DRC Government through different actions, however they received the assurance from the Governor to come up with clear suggestions on what they want the government to do.
As it is the same for many people in DRC, we joined all the women to reject the current DRC Government move to make Diplomacy priority and clearly indicated that the security of Congolese and our territorial integrity cannot be subjected to any form of negotiations, and at the same time recall that our integrity cannot be negotiated. We therefore called upon the Government to launch military operations in order to liberate all parts that are occupied and then after engage discussions with Rwanda.
The meeting also observed like in other various forums the different position of actors and wondered whose position we should make a priority. Participants remained with questions about what should DRC negotiate with Rwanda as both the African Union, the DRC Government, the United Nations and the European Union and other Diplomatic Missions have called for negotiations and political deal by Congolese continue to ignore the content, and what should the government negotiate with Rwanda exactly, no one knows what does Rwanda wants exactly.
We also presented the necessity to solve once for all issues connected to forced migrants and refugees in the Democratic Republic of Congo which we believed will solve the instability at 60% in North Kivu, Ituri and South Kivu Provinces, and in this we encouraged the women to support the proposal of a new policy governing refugees in DRC which is being considered to be submitted to the Parliament.
Joined by other representatives of the Civil Society and Pro-Democracy Pressure Groups the meeting concluded by series of actions in case the DRC Government does not respond positively to the demand of military operations against M23/RDF and allow people to go back to their villages.
Participants in the meeting listening to presentations from women groups, including IDPs only that we did not observe the presence of refugees
Thanks
