Friday, the African leaders attending the emergency regional summit in Nairobi on the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo called for an immediate end to the conflict in eastern Congo and urged the sides involved to settle their differences through peaceful negotiations.
The leaders called for the implementation of an immediate ceasefire and the creation of humanitarian corridors to assist the thousands of people displaced in the rebel advance in the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The emergency summit was held at a hotel in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on Friday, and was organized after the conflict between the government troops and the Tutsi rebels led by renegade general Laurent Nkunda threatened to spiral out of control.
Several African leaders and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon attended the Nairobi summit, but the Tutsi rebels were not represented at the emergency meeting.
The summit was aimed mainly at reviving talks between Congolese President Joseph Kabila and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame and at salvaging an earlier cease-fire deal signed by the Congolese government and the rebels in January.
The two neighboring African countries accuse each other of supporting each other's rebels and there were earlier reports of the involvement of Rwandan troops in the ongoing clashes between rebels and the government troops in eastern DR Congo.
Fresh fighting broke out in the North Kivu and South Kivu provinces between government forces and the forces loyal to general Nkunda in August despite an earlier peace deal between the two sides that was signed in January.
General Nkunda, who maintains that his forces are fighting to protect the interests of the Tutsi minority, refuses to disarm his forces despite signing the deal, saying that it is not possible as Rwandan Hutu rebels are still operating in the area.
Last week, the United Nations food aid agency had warned that the recent fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Nord-Kivu province has displaced more than 250,000 people and warned that the relief agencies are struggling to provide aid to the displaced.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.