The first direct talks between Congolese rebels and government officials got underway in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Monday, according to dpa. Tutsi rebel group the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) had threatened to pull out of the talks after the Democratic Republic of Congo government invited various other militia to take part, but the meeting went ahead. Until now, the government has refused to meet Laurent Nkunda's CNDP. However, UN peace envoy and former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo recently met both parties and persuaded them to sit down at the table. "This opportunity should neither be lost nor wasted," said Obasanjo. "Our aim is to find consensus on the way forward." Neither Nkunda nor Congolese President Joseph Kabila is attending the talks, which are expected to last until Wednesday. Nkunda called a ceasefire and pulled his troops back from the front lines in mid-November after meeting Obasanjo, but clashes have continued with government forces and pro-government Mai Mai militia. Nkunda says he is fighting to protect Tutsis from Hutu militia who fled to the DR Congo after Tutsi forces seized power in Rwanda. The armed Hutu groups were implicated in the 1994 massacres in Rwanda, when 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed. Well over 250,000 civilians have been displaced in the east of the DR Congo since August as a result of the renewed clashes, aid agencies say.
