The Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) announced the acceleration of integration of militia groups in the restive eastern province of North Kivu on Thursday.
Defence Minister Charles Mwando Simba launched the process at the Rumangabo military base, 45km from the provincial capital Goma, with attendance of militias recently coming over to the national army (FARDC).
The move came after renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda was arrested in Rwanda following a joint military operation of the two neighboring countries. His National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) was split with dissident generals signing a peace deal with Kinshasa.
Militias integrated into the FARDC on Thursday each received an identification card and an army uniform.
Simba encouraged them to unite and love each other and become members of one family. He urged leaders of other armed groups to follow the suite in the name of peace lay down arms and join the integration process.
Thursday's integration involved the dissident CNDP elements who signed the act of cessation of hostilities with the government. The pro-government Mai Mai militia group was also incorporated into the FARDC.
The integration of ex-combatants is seen as a key step to the restoration of peace and stability in DR Congo, especially in its volatile eastern region. The FARDC signed accords with 20 or so armed groups in January 2008 to end hostilities, but fighting resumed in late August between the army and one of the signatories, Nkunda's CNDP, displacing an estimated 250,000 people.
Analysts say only by integrating all the armed groups after a peace deal, could the war-plagued central African country see the long-awaited peace and stability and an end to the suffering of more than 1 million refugees.