
LEADERS from eastern and southern Africa on Saturday called for an immediate ceasefire in eastern Congo, where Rwandan-backed militias are threatening to overthrow the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo).
The African leaders also urged DR Congo’s president to directly negotiate with the M23 militia — named for the March 23 2009 peace agreement signed by its predecessor, the National Congress for the Defence of the People, and the DR Congo.
Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi, who attended the summit in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam by video conference, has previously said he would never talk to the M23 militia he sees as bent on exploiting his country’s vast mineral wealth.

For Egypt trade trumps the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians, but how long can the country’s ‘misleaders’ – and others in the region – continue their indifference against the popular will of their own people, asks ROGER McKENZIE

ROGER McKENZIE expounds on the motivation that drove him to write a book that anticipates a dawn of a new, fully liberated Africa – the land of his ancestors