Democratic Republic of Congo: Crisis in North Kivu

The CNDP captured the important town of Rutshuru, and advanced to the outskirts of the provincial capital, Goma, one of the most important population centres of the DRC. [...] In the absence of the FARDC, it has become the main fighting force against the CNDP. [...] The protection mandate includes the ability to proactively “deter any attempt at the use of force to threaten the political process from any armed group, foreign or Congolese, particularly in the Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including by using cordon and search tactics to prevent attacks on civilians and disrupt the military capability of illegal armed groups that continue [...] The first, in November 2007, was a meeting of the governments of Rwanda and the DRC in Nairobi which led to a “joint communiqué” by which they both agreed not to support armed groups operating in the DRC, to prevent illicit cross-border movement of arms and recruits, and to refrain from issuing negative propaganda against each other. [...] The failure to deal with the FDLR has served as a cause for both the CNDP and Rwanda to claim that the government and international community were not acting to protect the Tutsi community in the DRC.