No one in the Kinshasa government wanted to talk to the rebel General Laurent Nkunda. So the talks which began in Nairobi on 8 December were a big political risk, especially for President Joseph Kabila. He had few options, none of them good. Kinshasa’s 90,000 strong national army, even with the support of allied militias of Hutu and Mai-Mai fighters, has little prospect of defeating Nkunda or even neutralising his 6,000 strong militia.
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