
THE leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) stood firm yesterday in refusing to hold direct talks with the Rwanda-backed M23 militia group that has made major military advances in the east of the country.
In an interview with the BBC, the country’s Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka insisted that the DRC was open to negotiations with Rwanda, recognised by the United Nations and other observers as being the M23’s key backers.
A report by UN experts last year said that between 3,000 and 4,000 Rwandan troops had crossed the border and were fighting alongside the M23.

Ministers vote to escalate war on starving Palestinians
As global fascism grows, ROGER McKENZIE urges the left to reclaim May Day’s revolutionary roots — not as an act of nostalgia, but as fuel for building a ‘community of resistance’ against exploitation and the rise of fascism