Efforts pick up to help end fighting
International envoys converged on eastern Congo hoping to help end some of the worst violence the Central African nation has seen in years, as thousands of anxious, hungry refugees struggled to get home amid a fragile cease-fire.
The conflict is fueled by festering ethnic hatred left over from Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and Congo’s civil wars. Rebel leader Gen. Laurent Nkunda says the Congolese government has not protected ethnic Tutsis from Rwandan Hutu militias that escaped to Congo.
All sides are believed to fund fighters by illegally mining Congo’s vast mineral riches. The U.S. envoy for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, arrived in Goma with Alan Doss, the top U.N. envoy in Congo. The French and British foreign ministers are expected too.
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