Zambia said it will host a meeting on Thursday of Great Lakes region defence ministers to address the increasingly parlous security situation in conflict-racked eastern DR Congo.
In a statement on Saturday, Lusaka said it will "host a three-day meeting on the deteriorating security situation in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) ... at the request of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR)".
Countries in the region are alarmed at ongoing violence which again on Saturday pitted fighters from the M23 armed group against DRC troops around the strategic and resource-rich eastern city of Uvira bordering Rwanda.
The area has suffered repeated conflict over three decades and the violence has intensified since the resurgence of M23 in 2021.
12 defence ministers
Zambia shares a large border with the DRC.
Zambian Defence Minister Ambrose Lwiji Lufuma is expected to chair the meeting in Livingstone, with Lusaka adding that all 12 defence ministers and defence chiefs Forces from ICGLR member countries were expected to attend.
The ICGLR comprises Angola, Burundi, Central Africa Republic, Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
Having early last year taken control of the key eastern cities of Goma and Bukavu, the M23 last month launched a new offensive in South Kivu province, taking control of Uvira, a city of several hundred thousand, as well as a number of areas bordering Burundi.
Trump’s peace deal
The developments came just days after DR Congo and Rwanda had signed a peace accord in Washington overseen by US President Donald Trump.
Under US pressure, the M23 announced on December 17 it was withdrawing from Uvira, while asking for international mediation to ensure the city was protected from violence and "remilitarisation".
Washington last month denounced the "scale and sophistication" of Rwanda's involvement in eastern DRC, accusing it of having deployed between 5,000 and 7,000 troops there.
UN experts have long accused Rwanda of interfering militarily in the DRC. Kigali has always denied the accusations.
The M23, which denies links with Kigali, says its goal is the overthrow of DRC President Felix Tshisekedi.
Regional Congolese army spokesman Lieutenant Reagan Mbuyi Kalonji meanwhile told AFP on Saturday of "clashes in Kigongo and Katongo, specifically in the hills of Kashombe and Lubanda in the territory of Uvira".
