ULB academics join international scholars in urgent call for aid in RDC's humanitarian crisis

Thousands of deaths and victims of sexual violence - particularly among women and children, tens of thousands of displaced persons, and the destruction of towns and villages left behind by the hostilities waged by the M23 and its supporters. The current situation in the provinces of North and South Kivu has been marked by unbearable barbarity. The escalation we have been witnessing, including the aggression/invasion of Congolese territory by foreign forces from Rwanda, risks setting the entire Great Lakes region ablaze, dragging it into a destructive and bloody war.

For more than 30 years, the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been the scene of an unprecedented humanitarian tragedy that has claimed more than 10 million lives, led to massive population displacements and been marked by systemic violence, including rape used as a weapon of war.

Scientists from various disciplines, universities and nations, as well as citizens committed to peace, call on national, regional and international decision-makers to assume their responsibilities in order to put an immediate end to the war and the violations of international law and human rights underway in North and South Kivu.

Urgent measures await

The signatories ask that calls such as that of the European Parliament for appropriate sanctions against Rwanda be heeded and implemented. This should allow the relaunch of a process promoting the implementation of the Addis Ababa Framework Agreement, which requires that:

all signatory States respect their commitments by ceasing all support to armed groups and promoting regional cooperation in good faith;
the planned institutional reforms be implemented without delay to ensure effective and inclusive governance in the DRC;
the international community exerts increased diplomatic pressure so that violations of the Agreement do not go unpunished.

Without the full implementation of the Addis Ababa Framework Agreement, no peace initiative can be truly effective. Only rigorous implementation of this instrument will make it possible to break the vicious cycle of violence.

It's high time for action and honoured commitments, say the signatories of the call, as peace, justice, the future of the entire region and the protection of millions of innocent lives are at stake.

Read the full call, in French, on the Université libre de Bruxelles' website.

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