Efforts by President William Ruto have hit a dead-end after the East African Extraordinary Leaders’ Summit he convened on the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo failed to achieve any result.

According to analysts, this is due to perceived vested interests by various parties, including Ruto.

The efforts appeared to hit a dead-end even as Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni offered to mediate warring teams in a bid to end the conflict between DRC government and the M23 rebels.

On Wednesday, Ruto, who is the current chairman of EAC Leaders’ Summit, convened a virtual meeting that was attended by Presidents Évariste Ndayishimiye (Burundi), Paul Kagame (Rwanda), Salva Kiir Mayardit (South Sudan), Samia Suluhu Hassan (Tanzania) and Museveni.

“The summit called on all parties to the conflict in eastern DRC to cease hostilities and observe immediate and unconditional ceasefire and facilitate humanitarian access to the affected population,” reads part of the communiqué from the summit. The EAC presidents while calling for a peaceful settlement of the conflict, urged the DRC government to engage directly with all stakeholders, including the M23 and other aggrieved groups.

DRC President Felix Tshisekedi gave the virtual meeting a wide berth and is said to have accused some of his fellow heads of state, including Ruto, of being partisan in the conflict that has engulfed the country’s mineral-rich Goma region.

While Tshisekedi snubbed the meeting, he was scheduled to attend a similar extraordinary summit convened by the South African Development Community (SADC) on the same matter in Zimbabwe, which Kagame has vowed to snub.

The eruption of fighting between Rwanda-backed M23 rebels and the DRC military has left scores of people dead among them 13 South African peacekeeping soldiers and Congolese civilians.

Tshisekedi also accused Kagame of aiding the M23 rebels to capture Goma early this week.

On his part Kagame took a swipe at Tshisekedi and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa of being insincere in efforts to restore peace in the troubled area.

“If South Africa wants to contribute to peaceful solutions, that is well and good, but South Africa is in no position to take on the role of a peacemaker or mediator. And if South Africa prefers confrontation, Rwanda will deal with the matter in that context any day,” Kagame said in a post on his X platform.

Not acceptable

Kagame said he had held conversations this week with Ramaphosa on the situation in eastern DRC but dismissed reports in the South African media, attributed to officials and Ramaphosa himself, as containing distortion, deliberate attacks and even lies.

“If words can change so much from a conversation to a public statement, it says a lot about how these very important issues are being managed,” Kagame added.

Experts on international relations maintained that Ruto was not acceptable as a convenor because he is seen as having vested interests in the matter.

“President Tshisekedi sees Kenya as an interested party in the Congo crisis so he could not be summoned to a meeting by an interested party,” said Prof Macharia Munene, a university lecturer and international affairs commentator.

He made reference to an incident last year when DRC recalled its ambassador to Kenya over the formation of Congo River Alliance in Nairobi, worsening an already-strained relationship.

Kenyan peacekeeping soldiers in Congo have also been accused by Kinshasa of being partisan. Kenya has been accused of supporting some of the rebels.

“It is not clear whether Ruto had quiet diplomacy with the two leaders before coming out in the open to convene the summit. That is why he has been left with egg on his face,” Prof Munene said.

Martin Oloo of the University of Nairobi echoed the sentiments, saying the meeting collapsed because some of the players, including Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda are the same characters with vested interests in DRC.

“To what extent is Kenya part of the problem and to what extent are some member states of the EAC part of this?” Dr Oloo posed.

Maintaining that the meeting was bound to flop, the don also questioned why Ruto rushed to consult with French President Emmanuel Macron over the issue “knowing very well they do not read from the same script with Tshisekedi just like is the case with Kagame.”

Kagame in his X platform claimed the South African Mission in DRC is not a peacekeeping force, and it has no place in the situation.

“It was authorised by SADC as a belligerent force engaging in offensive combat operations to help the DRC government fight against its own people, working alongside genocidal armed groups like FDLR which target Rwanda, while also threatening to take the war to Rwanda itself,” Kagame wrote.

He maintained that the mission displaced a true peacekeeping force, the East African Community Regional Force, and this contributed to the failure of the negotiation processes.

Ruto, in a communique convening the EAC heads’ summit, expressed concern on the expanding crisis manifesting in recent attacks on diplomatic missions and the deteriorating security situation in the eastern DRC which led to the loss of lives and a humanitarian crisis.