There was no ceasefire agreement reached last Wednesday between the Congolese representatives and Nkunda’s National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), after three days of meetings in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

According to Obasanjo, the UN special envoy and former Nigerian president chairing the meeting, the “participating rebels asked to discuss the situation in the whole country as opposed to just the conflict in the east.” He also added that “the rebel delegation had no decision-making power to proceed any further.”

Meanwhile, the rebels have accused the UN mediation efforts of siding with the Congolese government and threatened to pull out of the talks.

Nkunda’s willigness to change the Congolese institutions in place as well as his demand for key posts in the governemnt will complicate the talks even further.

The same Wednesday, a UN expert panel confirmed that both Rwanda and the Congolese government have been deeply involved in worsening the conflict by supporting rebels in the region. Rwanda, for instance, has financially assisted and helped recruit fighters for the Tutsi rebels led by ex-general Laurent Nkunda in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It also cites “extensive collaboration” between Congolese government troops and Hutu rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) as well as with Mai Mai militia.

Both Kinshasa and Kigali have denied providing such support to rebel groups.

In a statement released Friday by Olusegun Obasanjo, “the Nairobi peace talks which began earlier this week will adjourn until Dec. 17.”

Out of the 17,000 UN peacemakers scattered throughout the DRC, only 800 are deployed in the North-Kivu where most of the violence and rapes are taking place. Last week, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon requested the European Union (EU) to provide a “bridging force” to be deployed in the region while the UN prepares for 3,000 additional peacekeepers for deployement within the next four months.

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