June 21, 2022 – Central African Republic News Gazette

June 21, 2022

Zoom Expands Developer Platform with Launch of Zoom Apps SDK

Zoom Apps SDK enables developers to build new applications that transform the meeting experience

SAN JOSE, Calif., June 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today, Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZM) announced the general availability of the Zoom Apps SDK, which provides developers with the resources and support infrastructure needed to build Zoom Apps within the Zoom client. By building on the Zoom Apps SDK, developers can reach Zoom customers, and users can discover and add new apps within the same client they use every day. Over 100 Zoom Apps have been published by developer partners to enrich meeting experiences ranging from meeting productivity, team collaboration, and social networking to gaming.

“To meet customer expectations, organizations continue to look for ways to evolve their businesses and scale workflows, which leads to an increased need for developers to have access to develop innovative app capabilities and features,” said Brendan Ittelson, Chief Technology Officer at Zoom. “With the launch of the Zoom Apps SDK, the Zoom Developer Platform continues to expand and offer developers new ways to incorporate video communications and collaboration into their creations, transforming business workflows forever.”

“The ability to leverage APIs to enable application integration and innovation is a critical digital transformation need,” says Irwin Lazar, President and Principal Analyst at Metrigy. “More than 84% of IT professionals in our research say that API availability is important for employee and customer engagement use cases. General availability of the Zoom Apps SDK will make it easier, and faster, for developers to deliver business benefits through a variety of ways.”

Zoom Apps SDK broadens developer capabilities by:

Increasing the reach of new applications by tapping into Zoom’s global and diverse audience, listing apps on the Zoom App Marketplace and in the Zoom client where apps can be installed even during a Zoom Meeting
Extending new apps to create collaborative experiences across Zoom Meetings
Creating engaging experiences for customers both within and outside of Zoom Meetings

Zoom Apps SDK is a JavaScript SDK that provides access to client features such as setting the Virtual Background while also providing the app context for the interaction. Fundamentally, it uses a method to get the meeting context, with identifiers for the user and meeting. These identifiers can be used with a comprehensive set of API endpoints from the Zoom Developer Platform, including REST APIs and Webhooks to enrich the app experience.

With the Zoom Apps SDK, companies are able to create engaging experiences within Zoom Meetings, and in the Zoom desktop window for asynchronous collaboration.

“In this new era of hybrid work, businesses are using more apps than ever to collaborate and get work done from anywhere,” said Ketan Kittur, Vice President, Product Management at Box. “We know that customers want all of their favorite apps to work securely and seamlessly together. With the Zoom Apps SDK, we created the Box app for Zoom which empowers our thousands of joint customers to work frictionlessly across our two platforms.”

Getting Started with Zoom Apps SDK
Building with Zoom Apps SDK is simple. Here’s how to get started:

Build the app: Utilize the Zoom Apps SDK to develop and customize an app.
Complete the submission checklist: Before submitting an app for review, ensure all items are completed in the Submission Requirements. The checklist covers marketing, privacy, legal, support, and technical information.
Submit the app for review: All apps submitted for publication undergo a thorough review, including functional and usability testing, and security and compliance review.
Publish on App Marketplace: Once published, the app will be available to all users through an embeddable button.

To learn more about the Zoom Apps SDK, please read our blog.

About Zoom
Zoom is for you. Zoom is a space where you can connect to others, share ideas, make plans, and build toward a future limited only by your imagination. Our frictionless communications platform is the only one that started with video as its foundation, and we have set the standard for innovation ever since. That is why we are an intuitive, scalable, and secure choice for large enterprises, small businesses, and individuals alike. Founded in 2011, Zoom is publicly traded (NASDAQ:ZM) and headquartered in San Jose, California. Visit zoom.com and follow @zoom.

Zoom Public Relations
Kim Gaertner
Developer PR Manager
press@zoom.us

June 21, 2022

NetSPI Expands Global Footprint with Strategic Leadership Appointments in EMEA

Security industry leaders join NetSPI’s EMEA team to fuel growth and meet increased demand for pentesting services in EMEA

MINNEAPOLIS, June 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — NetSPI, the leader in enterprise penetration testing and attack surface management, today announced the expansion of its global footprint in Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) to meet growing international demand for its offensive security solutions.

“NetSPI’s technology-powered services and customer-first focus has solidified the company’s leading position within the North American offensive security industry,” said KKR’s Paul Harragan, a London-based investor in NetSPI. “The team’s specialised skill set, tech acumen and white glove delivery model will resonate with the European market and should drive continued growth and expansion as the team develops and delivers critical offensive security solutions.”

“We’ve experienced a record volume of demand from EMEA organisations needing to improve their security posture through a proven, holistic approach to pentesting, and now, we’re well positioned to deliver this in the region,” said Aaron Shilts, CEO, NetSPI. “We’ve hired a team of extremely talented, energising security leaders who align with our customer-first approach to business. Establishing our EMEA beachhead with this incredible group will ensure NetSPI is destined for accelerated growth and continued success in the region.”

The company has appointed security industry veterans Steve Bakewell, Steve Armstrong, and Eric Graves to strategically lead NetSPI’s EMEA team and drive further growth in the region. Bakewell joins NetSPI as Managing Director of EMEA and brings over 23 years of experience in cybersecurity and risk management across organisations including Central Government & Defence and Royal Bank of Scotland, as well as with security vendors such as CipherCloud, RiskIQ and Citrix.

“The pentesting space is highly competitive in the UK, but vendors in the region simply do not have the pedigree that NetSPI has,” Bakewell said. “NetSPI already provides its penetration testing services to nine out of the top 10 U.S. banks and many of the Fortune 500 – I’m looking forward to the opportunity to serve end users in EMEA during a time when security is high on the business agenda.”

Bakewell will work closely with Armstrong, who has been appointed Regional Vice President for EMEA. Armstrong has two decades of experience in sales and security, spanning companies including Bitglass, CyCognito and Avira. Graves will work alongside Armstrong as NetSPI’s Regional Sales Director for EMEA, leveraging his extensive experience in cybersecurity sales for organisations such as Pentera, TrendMicro and Spok, to meet global demand and provide NetSPI’s award-winning pentesting solutions to EMEA customers. The three leaders will work closely alongside Shilts and oversee NetSPI’s growing team in EMEA.

NetSPI will be at InfoSecurity Europe from June 21-23, 2022 at ExCel London. Participate in a live demo and meet the company’s security experts at Stand M-12. For more information or to schedule a meeting with NetSPI at InfoSecurity Europe, please click here.

About NetSPI
NetSPI is the leader in enterprise security testing and attack surface management, partnering with nine of the top 10 U.S. banks, three of the world’s five largest healthcare companies, the largest global cloud providers, and many of the Fortune® 500. NetSPI offers Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS) through its Resolve™ penetration testing and vulnerability management platform. Its experts perform deep dive manual penetration testing of application, network, and cloud attack surfaces, historically testing over 1 million assets to find 4 million unique vulnerabilities. NetSPI is headquartered in Minneapolis, MN and is a portfolio company of private equity firms Sunstone Partners, KKR, and Ten Eleven Ventures. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Media Contacts
Tori Norris, NetSPI
victoria.norris@netspi.com
(630) 258-0277

Jessica Bettencourt, Inkhouse for NetSPI
netspi@inkhouse.com
(774) 451-5142

June 21, 2022

NetSPI élargit son empreinte mondiale avec des nominations stratégiques à la direction de la zone EMEA

Les leaders du secteur de la sécurité rejoignent l’équipe EMEA de NetSPI pour alimenter la croissance et répondre à la demande croissante de services de pen test dans la zone EMEA

MINNEAPOLIS, 21 juin 2022/PRNewswire/ — NetSPI, leader dans les tests de pénétration d’entreprise et la gestion des surfaces d’attaque, a annoncé aujourd’hui l’expansion de son empreinte mondiale en Europe, au Moyen-Orient et en Afrique (EMEA) pour répondre à la demande internationale croissante pour ce qui est de ses solutions de sécurité offensives.

« Les services de NetSPI axés sur la technologie et le client ont consolidé la position de leader de l’entreprise au sein de l’industrie nord-américaine de la sécurité offensive », a déclaré Paul Harragan de KKR, un investisseur londonien dans NetSPI. « L’ensemble de compétences spécialisées de l’équipe, son sens aigu de la technologie et son modèle de prestation de premier ordre trouveront un écho sur le marché européen et devraient favoriser la croissance et l’expansion continues à mesure que l’équipe développe et fournit des solutions de sécurité offensives critiques. »

« Nous avons connu un volume record de demandes de la part des organisations de la zone EMEA qui ont besoin d’améliorer leur posture de sécurité grâce à une approche holistique éprouvée du pen test, et maintenant, nous sommes bien positionnés pour offrir cela dans la région », a déclaré Aaron Shilts, PDG de NetSPI. « Nous avons embauché une équipe de leaders de la sécurité extrêmement talentueux et dynamiques qui s’alignent sur notre approche d’affaires axée sur le client. L’établissement de notre chef de file EMEA avec ce groupe incroyable garantira que NetSPI est destiné à une croissance accélérée et à un succès continu dans la région. »

La société a nommé les vétérans de l’industrie de la sécurité Steve Bakewell , Steve Armstrong , afin Éric Graves de diriger stratégiquement l’équipe EMEA de NetSPI et de stimuler la croissance dans la région. Bakewell rejoint NetSPI en tant que directeur général de l’EMEA et apporte plus de 23 ans d’expérience dans la cybersécurité et la gestion des risques au sein d’organisations telles que Central Government & Defence et Royal Bank of Scotland, ainsi qu’avec des fournisseurs de solutions de sécurité tels que CipherCloud, RiskIQ et Citrix.

« L’espace de pen test est très compétitif au Royaume-Uni, mais les fournisseurs de la région n’ont tout simplement pas le pedigree que possède NetSPI », a dit Bakewell. « NetSPI fournit déjà ses services de tests de pénétration à neuf des dix premières banques américaines et à un grand nombre des entreprises du Fortune 500. J’ai hâte de pouvoir servir les utilisateurs finaux en Europe, au Moyen-Orient et en Afrique à un moment où la sécurité est une priorité pour les entreprises. »

Bakewell travaillera en étroite collaboration avec Armstrong, qui a été nommé vice-président régional pour la région EMEA. Armstrong possède deux décennies d’expérience dans les ventes et la sécurité, couvrant des entreprises telles que Bitglass, CyCognito et Avira. Graves travaillera aux côtés d’Armstrong en tant que directeur régional des ventes de NetSPI pour la région EMEA, mettant à profit sa vaste expérience dans les ventes de cybersécurité pour des organisations telles que Pentera, TrendMicro et Spok, afin de répondre à la demande mondiale et d’octroyer le prix NetSPI des solutions de pen test aux clients EMEA. Les trois leaders travailleront en étroite collaboration avec Shilts et superviseront l’équipe NetSPI en pleine croissance en EMEA.

NetSPI sera à InfoSecurity Europe du 21 au 23 juin 2022 à ExCel London. Participez à une démonstration en direct et rencontrez les experts en sécurité de l’entreprise au stand M-12. Pour plus d’informations ou pour organiser une réunion avec NetSPI à InfoSecurity Europe, veuillez cliquer ici .

À propos de NetSPI
NetSPI est le leader des tests de sécurité d’entreprise et de la gestion de la surface d’attaque, en partenariat avec neuf des dix plus grandes banques américaines, trois des cinq plus grandes entreprises de soins de santé au monde, les plus grands fournisseurs mondiaux de cloud computing et de nombreux membres du Fortune® 500. NetSPI offre des tests de pénétration en tant que service (PTaaS) grâce à sa plateforme de test de pénétration Resolve™ et de gestion des vulnérabilités. Ses experts effectuent des tests de pénétration manuels en profondeur des surfaces d’attaque des applications, des réseaux et des clouds, testant historiquement plus d’un million d’actifs pour trouver 4 millions de failles uniques. NetSPI est basée à Minneapolis, MN et est une société de portefeuille de sociétés de capital-investissement Sunstone Partners, KKR, et Ten Eleven Ventures. Suivez-nous sur Facebook , Twitter et LinkedIn .

Contacts pour les médias
Tori Norris, NetSPI
victoria.norris@netspi.com
(630) 258-0277

Jessica Bettencourt, Inkhouse pour NetSPI
netspi@inkhouse.com
(774) 451-5142

June 21, 2022

Cypher Capital, Huobi Ventures, GSR Capital, and LD Capital Invest in $2M Round for Blockchain Gaming Platform ‘MetaOne’

SINGAPORE, June 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — MetaOne, the largest SAAS to onboard massive games and guilds onto blockchain gaming, has recently announced the close of its first private round for the development of their platform’s guild analytical tools and transformative smart contract for NFT management.

Despite the current market situation, the total of $2 million funding raised was supported by entities such as Huobi Ventures, Cypher Capital and GSR Capital, who are passionate about contributing to the Web 3.0 advancement by identifying strategic opportunities to support blockchain projects.

“We are beyond enthusiastic about our new investment, MetaOne, the service platform that enables massive gamer communities,” says Vineet Budki, Managing Partner and CEO of Cypher Capital.

“MetaOne is solving key problems in the current Web 3.0 GameFi market by creating a single platform that attracts Web 2.0 gamers to Web 3.0 GameFi and empowers the gaming guilds to take data-backed decisions. By leveraging on our strong influence in the region, MetaOne is looking to tap into the Middle East market to convert more gamers into GameFi,” Vineet concluded.

With more than 242 guilds, over 72,000 gamers onboarded, 33 GameFi titles partnership in the pipeline and NFT asset management across 7 chains, the platform is eager to work with more partners to realize the vision of GameFi empowerment and to become the mainstream adoption platform from Web2 gaming to Web3 GameFi over the globe.

Furthermore, MetaOne hopes to localize the platform through their relationship in East-Africa as a MOU has been recently signed with East-African partners who are associated with Mpesa and Sports-Pesa. The partnership looks forward to providing a seamless onboarding experience for the gaming communities in the region.

“We are so excited about communicating this vision to all geographical regions and realizing it into real executable plans where guilds, gamers, GameFi studios and the retail investors can see and feel the tangibles.” said Marrtin Hoon, CEO of MetaOne.

They recently partnered with Yup.gg, the leading esports gaming marketing group in Singapore, which owns 6,000 and more KOLs in their ecosystem. To that extent, the partnership is looking to convert ex-twitch KOLs of Yup.gg to become MetaOne guild masters and recruiting their followers as gamers.

The project is expected to have its official platform roll and utility token launch by year 2022.

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1843026/Image.jpg

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1819503/IMG_9A8907441FBE_5_Logo.jpg

June 21, 2022

La solution de stockage de sauvegarde OceanProtect de Huawei remporte le prix Best of Show au salon Interop Tokyo 2022

SHENZHEN, Chine, 20 juin 2022/PRNewswire/ — Lors de l’Interop Tokyo 2022, la plus grande exposition de TIC au Japon, la solution de stockage de sauvegarde OceanProtect de Huawei a remporté le prix spécial du Best of Show Award dans la catégorie Serveur & Stockage. Il s’agit du premier prix de classe mondiale remporté par le stockage de sauvegarde OceanProtect de Huawei, ce qui démontre son caractère haut de gamme et ses avantages sur la concurrence.

Critique récompensée : Des performances de stockage de sauvegarde inégalées. Avec des vitesses de sauvegarde rapides et des ratios de réduction des données élevés, le système peut révolutionner les applications et les conceptions de systèmes et propulser un nouveau modèle de stockage de sauvegarde dans le futur.

Interop Tokyo est le salon des TIC le plus important et le plus influent du Japon. Chaque année, les meilleures entreprises du secteur des technologies du monde entier présentent leurs solutions de pointe et leurs prouesses techniques, afin de se disputer les critiques positives d’Interop. La solution de stockage de sauvegarde OceanProtect de Huawei a été saluée par les experts en informatique et les critiques grâce à sa solution de pointe et unique, et à une démonstration sur site sans faille.

Le modèle traditionnel Disk-to-Disk-to-Tape (D2D2T) pour la protection des données est confronté à des problèmes tels que la longueur de la fenêtre de sauvegarde et le temps de récupération, tandis que la nouvelle ère du Flash-to-Flash-to-Anything (F2F2X) est en train de redéfinir le modèle, car les solutions de sauvegarde deviennent flash, ce qui libère davantage la valeur des données. Le stockage de sauvegarde OceanProtect de Huawei, en tant que produit de référence intelligent intégralement flash de nouvelle génération, est conçu pour l’ère F2F2X, avec une sauvegarde et une récupération rapides, une réduction efficace et une grande fiabilité.

Les raisons pour lesquelles le stockage de sauvegarde OceanProtect de Huawei a été désigné vainqueur

Le premier avantage est la rapidité de la sauvegarde et de la récupération. En amont, OceanProtect utilise une carte d’interface réseau (NIC) intelligente DTOE pour optimiser les calculs du protocole et libérer les ressources de calcul du processeur, doublant ainsi la bande passante de la matrice par rapport à une carte NIC traditionnelle. En outre, OceanProtect prend en charge les disques SSD haute performance en arrière-plan. La fonction d’accélération complète de bout en bout permet d’atteindre une bande passante de 155 To/heure en sauvegarde et de 172 To/heure en récupération.

En termes de réduction efficace, la déduplication en ligne multicouche à longueur variable, la compression basée sur les caractéristiques et le compactage au niveau de l’octet permettent d’atteindre un taux de réduction des données de 72:1, contribuant à réduire considérablement le coût total de possession.

En outre, la haute fiabilité de 6-nines repose sur l’architecture matérielle de redondance active-active et la technologie RAID-TP, qui peut tolérer trois défaillances de disque et effectuer un basculement en quelques secondes en cas de défaillance d’un seul contrôleur, ce qui permet d’obtenir une disponibilité et une fiabilité élevées.

À l’ère du F2F2X, la protection des données embrasse un nouvel écosystème et de nouveaux défis. Le stockage de sauvegarde OceanProtect de Huawei s’adapte aux modèles de sauvegarde à grande vitesse dans divers secteurs et environnements d’application, fournissant une sauvegarde et une récupération de qualité supérieure pour protéger vos actifs numériques dans le monde de demain.

Pour obtenir de plus amples renseignements sur les solutions OceanProtect de Huawei, consultez le site web suivant :

https://e.huawei.com/en/products/storage/oceanprotect/oceanprotect-x8000-x9000

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1842297/image_986294_35954756.jpg

June 21, 2022

Glencore UK Subsidiary Pleads Guilty to Bribery in Africa

A British subsidiary of mining and trading giant Glencore on Tuesday formally pleaded guilty to seven counts of bribery in connection with oil operations in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and South Sudan.

At a Southwark Crown Court hearing in London, Glencore Energy admitted to paying more than $28 million in bribes to secure preferential access to oil and generate illicit profit between 2011 and 2016. The company will be sentenced on Nov. 2 and 3, the U.K. Serious Fraud Office, or SFO, said.

Glencore, a Swiss-based multinational, has already said it expects to pay up to $1.5 billion to settle allegations of bribery and market manipulation and three subsidiaries in the United States, Brazil and Britain have now pleaded guilty to criminal offenses.

U.S. authorities will see the bulk of those funds after Glencore agreed to a $1.1 billion U.S. settlement last month to resolve a decade-long scheme to bribe foreign officials across seven countries — and separate charges alleging a trading division manipulated fuel oil prices at U.S. shipping ports.

But the guilty plea by a corporate heavyweight in London is a much-needed boost for the SFO, which has faced sharp criticism and awaits the outcome of a “forensic” government-ordered review after senior judges overturned two convictions in its Unaoil bribery investigation because of disclosure failings.

“The SFO’s success with Glencore will certainly not protect it from any flak that comes its way,” said Syed Rahman, a partner at Rahman Ravelli. “But the result it has in this case is an indicator of what the agency is capable of when it does not make mistakes.”

Helen Taylor, a legal researcher at pressure group Spotlight on Corruption, urged the SFO now to investigate and prosecute senior executives who had condoned the wrongdoing.

The SFO said only that its Glencore investigation was ongoing.

Glencore is also paying $29.6 million directly to state-run Brazilian oil company Petrobras in compensation for defrauding the company and roughly $10 million to authorities in civil penalties, prosecutors have said.

Source: Voice of America

June 21, 2022

Suspected Islamist Militants Kill 132 Civilians in Central Mali

Mali’s military government says Islamist militants have massacred 132 civilians in the central Mopti region, in one of the deadliest attacks of the decade-long militant insurgency.

Mali has declared three days of mourning after gunmen suspected to be Islamist militants killed 132 villagers in the central Mopti region.

The attack on three villages the evening of June 18 is one of the deadliest since Mali’s conflict began in 2012.

A government statement was read on state TV ORTM Monday night by presenter Mariam Koné.

She says the government condemns with the utmost rigor the attacks and abuses perpetrated against peaceful populations. Kone says the government reassures that all measures will be taken to find and bring the perpetrators of these criminal acts before the court.

The attack in Mopti is the latest in a wave of attacks on civilians in Mali and neighboring Burkina Faso.

Last week in Burkina Faso, militants killed 86 civilians in an attack in the northern Seytenga area.

The U.N. mission to Mali, known as MINUSMA, in a statement Monday night condemned the attacks in central Mali.

The statement noted recent attacks also took place in several areas of Gao region, causing the deaths of dozens of civilians.

Local officials told AFP this week that 24 civilians were killed in Ebak, Mali, 35 kilometers north of the regional capital.

A local political movement reported that Islamist militants killed 22 men in Izingaz in Menaka region on June 12.

Mali’s military government has not commented on the growing insecurity and violence in the country’s northern regions.

The rise in violence comes as the French military is in the process of withdrawing from the region over Mali’s working with Russian mercenaries.

Human Rights Watch and news reports quote locals saying Mali’s army and Russian mercenaries killed hundreds of civilians in Moura, in central Mali, in March.

The military denies killing any civilians, says there are only Russian “instructors” in Mali, and says the Moura attack killed more than 200 Islamist militants.

Source: Voice of America

June 21, 2022

Tunisian Journalist Freed After Detention Over ‘State Security’

The editor of a Tunisian news website close to the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party was released after being detained in relation to a company accused of plotting against the state, his lawyer said Tuesday.

Lotfi Hidouri, editor of the Achahed website, had been detained since Thursday. He appeared Monday before a judge, who ruled he should be released, lawyer Samir Ben Amor told AFP.

Hidouri still faces prosecution, however, over allegedly suspicious transactions between a group that finances his operation and Instalingo, a digital content production firm.

Instalingo has been under investigation since last year for allegedly “plotting against state security” and “inciting violence”, according to Tunisian media reports.

Ben Amor said Hidouri had “no administrative duties” at Achahed that could justify his prosecution.

Ennahdha was the dominant force in a parliament dissolved by President Kais Saied after he sacked the government and seized wide-ranging powers last July.

Rights groups have warned that Saied’s moves threaten the country’s hard-won democratic gains since its 2011 revolution that sparked the Arab Spring uprisings.

In May, the SNJT journalists’ union warned of “serious threats” to press freedom in the North African country.

Source: Voice of America

June 21, 2022

East African Community Agrees to Deploy Troops to Stabilize DRC

East African leaders meeting in Kenya have agreed to deploy a Kenya-led regional security force to stop the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Weeks of fighting between DRC troops and rebels has raised tensions between the DRC and Rwanda. Congo accuses its neighbor of supporting the rebels, something Rwanda denies.

Seven countries in the East African Community regional bloc have given the green light for the standing EAC regional force to deploy its troops to the eastern DRC.

EAC leaders who met in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, Monday said they were committed to contributing to reconciliation and peace efforts in Congo’s volatile North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri provinces.

The areas have experienced decades of deadly fighting and, more recently, the emergence of the rebel group M23.

Kenya will lead the operation to pacify the region, which is home to dozens of rebel groups, some domestic, others with origins in Uganda and Rwanda.

The groups fight for control of territory and the region’s rich mines. Some fighters say they took up arms to protect their communities from other rebel groups.

Researcher and political analyst Ntanyoma Rukumbuzi said the EAC force must assure communities they will be safe.

“We need to see a military force that protects civilians by ending fighting, forcing combatants to lay down their guns,” he said. “We need a guarantee that a force is filling the vacuum where many of these armed groups have been working to protect their communities.”

Blaise Karege, a security researcher with web app Kivu Security Tracker, said the deployment of regional forces will not bring stability to Congo, noting that Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have sent troops in the past with little effect.

Karege said dialogue among Congolese would be of more help than having more troops in the country.

“Fighting won’t end Congo’s problems. Peace talks would have helped,” he said. “We wouldn’t need a lot of money, people and effort, I think Congolese want to talk. Congolese can talk to each other; they don’t have to go back to Kenya.”

Some reports say Rwanda will not take part in the planned deployment. Kinshasa has accused Kigali of supporting M23, a claim denied by Rwanda.

M23 claims it is protecting the Tutsi minority in the eastern DRC. Since the Rwandan government is Tutsi-led, some Congolese government officials link the two.

There was no immediate word on how many EAC troops will be deployed to Congo or when they may arrive.

The EAC says the force will work with the Congolese army to disarm rebel groups and militias.

EAC leaders also called on Congo and Rwanda to stop using offensive language, hate speech and threats of genocide.

Source: Voice of America