Leaders of the regional blocs from eastern and southern Africa met for an unprecedented joint summit on Saturday to find a solution to the conflict in eastern Congo, where the rapid advance of Rwandan-backed rebels since January has stoked fears of a wider war, Reuters reported.
M23 rebels seized Goma, the largest city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, last week. Despite the unilateral ceasefire, they have continued to advance south towards the city of Bukavu.
“History will judge us harshly if we stand idly by and watch the situation deteriorate day by day,“ Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan said at the opening ceremony.
The first-ever summit of both the eastern and southern African blocs shows the continents' deep concern over the crisis and standoff between Congo and neighboring Rwanda, which denies accusations it is fueling the conflict with its own troops and weapons.
The two factions have so far been widely divided on the conflict, with the eastern bloc closer to Rwanda's call for dialogue and southern countries supporting Congo and angered by the deaths of peacekeepers, experts and diplomats said.
The leaders are seeking a breakthrough after two peace processes in Luanda and Nairobi have stalled due to escalating tensions.
The bloc's foreign ministers recommended that the summit consider calling for a cessation of hostilities, an unconditional ceasefire and the reopening of Goma airport and other key routes for the delivery of urgently needed humanitarian aid.
In the past month, the M23's lightning advance has expanded its control over lucrative coltan, gold and tin ore mines in North Kivu province, uprooting thousands in what was already one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
Humanitarian groups are helping to relieve overwhelmed hospitals as health workers race against time to bury the bodies of at least 2,000 people killed in the battle for Goma amid fears of the spread of the disease.
Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court say they are monitoring close-up of the bloodshed, where reports of rape, gang rape and sexual slavery have emerged, according to the UN human rights office.
Ahead of the summit, the US warned of possible sanctions against Rwandan and Congolese officials, further raising the stakes of finding a solution to a conflict rooted in the long-term effects of the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the struggle for control of Congo's mineral resources.
Well-trained and professionally armed, the M23 is the latest in a long line of ethnic Tutsi-led rebel movements to emerge in Congo's volatile east. The Congolese government claims it is a Rwandan proxy, a claim the rebel group denies.
Rwanda denies allegations that thousands of its soldiers are fighting alongside the M23. But he says he is defending himself against the threat of a Hutu-led militia, which he says is fighting alongside the Congolese army.