A joint summit between the East African Community and the Southern African Development Community will take place today and Saturday in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The Presidents of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Paul Kagame and Félix Tshisekedi, are both expected to attend.
Both presidents were supposed to meet in December in Angola and sign a peace agreement, but the meeting was cancelled. Both parties blamed each other for failed talks as tensions escalated.
A source close to the Congolese presidency said: "From this summit, we expect an immediate ceasefire, the unconditional withdrawal of Rwandan troops and their auxiliaries, the reopening of Goma airport for humanitarian reasons, and the return of the city to the official administration."
Tina Salama, the spokesperson for Félix Tshisekedi, added, "We also expect severe sanctions against Rwanda,"
The situation is at a "pivotal moment" United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, adding that the conflict "risks engulfing the entire region" and urged the parties to work together for peace.
The rebels seized Goma, the largest city in eastern Congo, last week, then on Wednesday took another mining town - Nyabibwe - in the South Kivu province, in a push towards the provincial capital Bukavu, violating the ceasefire they had declared on Tuesday.
Two regional organisations, East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), are organising the summit and have both expressed their desire to hold a joint meeting as soon as possible to align their positions and prevent the risk of a regional escalation.
South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni and Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud are also expected to attend the talks.
For Rwanda, a key issue is the role of the SADC mission in the DRC, according to RFI's correspondent in Kigali, Lucie Mouillaud. Kigali describes this force as "offensive" and is calling for its withdrawal, along with that of the Burundian troops.
But the EAC and the SADC have differing views on solutions to the conflict.
The EAC advocates direct negotiations between the Congolese government and the M23, a solution that Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi has so far refused to consider.
This led him to replace the EAC’s peacekeeping force in the DRC with that of the SADC, which is calling on Rwanda to first withdraw from Congolese territory, as the government in Kinshasa wants.
"We should not have too high expectations," Sematumba told RFI, for whom simply holding this summit with all the announced participants would already be "a diplomatic success" in itself.
Reports of rebel advance towards Bukavu on Thursday sparked panic in several towns and villages including in Bukavu, where the Catholic university suspended academic activities scheduled for Friday, a statement said.
The rebels, signalling their intent to govern seized areas, assembled hundreds in a Goma stadium to introduce newly appointed administrators and urge a return to work and school.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that hundreds of thousands are displaced in Goma, with former displacement sites north of the city looted, destroyed, or abandoned. He added that healthcare facilities are overwhelmed, and essential services such as schools, water, electricity, and communications are severely disrupted.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Wednesday estimated that at least 2,800 people died in Goma.
(with newswires)