Congo: Talks With Rwanda In Sign of Closer Ties

originally published in the New York Times, United States

Congo’s president, Joseph Kabila, met Thursday with Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, in talks they both hailed as a significant step in the resurrection of ties between the two central African states. Both governments promised to collaborate closely on the security situation in eastern Congo, including sharing military intelligence. The meeting, in Goma, occurred just days before Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton plans to visit the war-torn city. Relations between the countries were broken after Rwanda invaded Congo in 1998 in search of Hutu involved in a genocide in Rwanda in 1994.