DRC – Rwanda: EAC heads’ meeting no closer to finding a solution

The heads of state meetings are often for brief reviews of documents prepared by technocrats and append of signatures. The Nairobi meeting was preceded by that of army commanders of the regional countries who had worked on a troop deployment plan. However, when President Uhuru Kenyatta hosted five heads of state from the region, with only one absence (Tanzania’s Samia Suluhu Hassan), the brief photo moment of the Kenyan leader welcoming his counterparts was followed by a five-hour lull. This was the time when the presidents were meeting.

It was the first time that Rwanda’s Paul Kagame and DRC’s Felix Tshisekedi were sitting in one room since the escalation of tensions between the two countries in early May. Senegal’s Macky Sall, current chairperson of African Union, and Angola’s João Lourenço had talked to Kagame and Tshisekedi in the previous weeks, but with no positive results.

Instea