Hommam Al Nassim 
South Sudanese President Salva Kiir Mayardit arrived in Rwanda on Thursday, in his capacity as Chairman of the East African Community, on a regional peace mission, the Presidency of South Sudan announced.
According to the South Sudanese presidency, Salva Kiir’s trip is a regional peace mission, where he will discuss the crisis that has escalated between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo over Rwanda’s support for the M23 rebel movement.
The presidency said Kiir was then due to travel to Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo respectively to try to settle their differences amicably.
The DRC accuses Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebels in an attempt to control the region’s vast mineral resources, which Rwanda denies, and all diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis have so far failed.
The African Union Commission on Thursday called on both the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda to calm down after tensions escalated between them in recent weeks, especially as Rwanda rejected the US State Department’s request to withdraw its troops and surface-to-air missile systems from eastern Congo.
The U.S. State Department also criticized the escalation of violence caused by the Rwandan-backed M23 militant group.