Envoy reports some progress in Congo talks

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A U.N. envoy trying to bring peace to eastern Congo told the Security Council on Thursday that there has been some progress in talks between the Congolese government and a key rebel group.

Olusegun Obasanjo, the former president of Nigeria, cautioned that “much remains to be done,” but he said the situation has improved significantly since early November when fighting and ethnic tensions had escalated significantly.

The envoy also said there’s been “a warming relationship” between the leaders of Congo and Rwanda, which borders the conflict-wracked eastern Congo region.

The fighting has been fueled by festering ethnic hatred left over from the 1994 slaughter of a half-million Tutsis in Rwanda, and Congo’s 1996-2002 civil wars, which drew neighboring countries in a rush to plunder Congo’s mineral wealth.

In the latest outbreak of violence, rebels led by Laurent Nkunda launched an offensive in late August, gaining control of a large swath of the North Kivu region and driving over a quarter of a million people from their homes. Many Congolese soldiers fled the advancing rebels, and U.N. peacekeepers were unable to protect civilians from being killed or raped.

Obasanjo told the council that “progress has remained slower than desirable.”

in the dialogue between the government and Nkunda’s rebel movement that began on Dec. 8. But he said the last of three documents on “ground rules” for substantive discussions was signed on Jan. 12 and the parties have now “re-engaged in discussions towards a joint cessation of hostilities declaration.”