US lawmakers on Wednesday heard a powerful plea to stop a brutal wave of rapes and killings by rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo amid claims six million people have died in years of war. “Congress, in your hands you have the salvation of all Congolese people,” Ntambo Nkulu Ntanda, bishop of the United Methodist Church of North Katanga, told a House of Representatives subcommittee. “We came to seek your assistance because we know who you are. You have power… you have all the means to stop the war in Congo.” …

Jason Stearns, Director of the Usalama Project at the Rift Valley Institute, said the crisis and rise of the M23 resulted from “the failure of the Congolese peace process to deal with persistent causes of conflict in the region.” He urged the United States to deepen its engagement saying the region had only a low priority with the administration. But he stressed no solution could be imposed by outsiders, saying a high-level African-led option would have the best chance of success. “The key problem the US government has had is apathy. It's not that it's done the wrong things. It's that they haven't done anything at all,” he added.