Hardship in rebel areas fuelling demand for talks

Living conditions in the rebel-held east of the country are now “really very difficult on the ground” and people’s disenchantment with persistent economic hardship and, as a result, with the war is a definite factor in the pressure on rebel forces to seek some political solution to the conflict, a humanitarian source told IRIN on Friday. “In general, the people are fed up of the war” and they wanted Ugandan and Rwandan forces - particularly the latter, who are “deeply unpopular” with many Congolese - to return home, he added. With the war having cut off the east from Kinshasa - its traditional source of supplies, whether by air or river - prices had increased substantially and people were finding it hard to make ends meet, he said. An AFP report added that fuel and food, which now have to be imported from Rwanda or Uganda, have more than tripled in price in the past 10 months while smuggling and opportunistic profiteering have exacerbated the situation.