France, Togo urge action on DR Congo crisis at Paris Peace Forum

By Mevlut Ozkan

ISTANBUL (AA) - France and Togo urged action on Thursday to step up efforts to end violence and aid millions displaced by fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, saying peace and prosperity in the Great Lakes region depend on coordinated political and economic action.

Eastern Congo’s Kivu and Ituri provinces and the wider Great Lakes region are seeing a resurgence of conflict affecting communities across the Congolese, Rwandan, Burundian, and Ugandan borders, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said at the opening of a ministerial conference on peace and prosperity at the Paris Peace Forum.

Since January, approximately 2.4 million people have fled the fighting, he said, adding that Congo already has 6 million displaced people and 1 million refugees in the region.

More than 27 million people face hunger amid worsening food security and health crises, with women and girls on the front line of sexual violence and medicine shortages raising fears of renewed epidemics, Barrot warned.

“This situation, which has been lasting for far too long, is not a tenable one. To go from words to deeds, we have to fix objectives, make commitments, and uphold them,” he underlined.

He outlined three objectives, including amplifying the voices of international and local NGOs and UN agencies, addressing the severe funding gap with the UN response plan, only 16% financed across the region, and ensuring the efficient use of funds by guaranteeing humanitarian access, protecting aid workers, and making sure assistance reaches the most affected populations.

This year, 13 humanitarian workers have lost their lives, Barrot noted.

Reiterating France's support for mediation by the US, Qatar, African Union mediator Togo, and previously Angola, he said ongoing negotiations between Congo and Rwanda, and between the Congolese government and M23, are “primordial so that a political, sustainable political solution comes about and for peace to return peace, but also prosperity.”

Barrot said a part of the forum will focus on regional economic integration, with local and regional economic actors outlining their expectations and highlighting key projects to foster greater economic solidarity, as well as an action plan aimed at promoting regional peace and prosperity.

Meanwhile, Togolese Foreign Minister Robert Dussey called the conflict in eastern Congo not just a Congolese crisis, but a regional one.

“It is a collective failure of the international community,” he said.

“The distress of the populations has reached a threshold that nobody can ignore. Silence and the absence or inaction are not tolerable anymore,” Dussey highlighted.

He said the conference must be an opportunity to act together, marking a new step where humanitarian action, peace diplomacy, and economic revival align to lead toward the “same horizon—that of stability and human dignity.”

The ministerial conference was attended by Congolese Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner and her Rwandan counterpart, Olivier Nduhungirehe.

French President Emmanuel Macron, Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe, and Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi were also present at the peace forum.