The UN Secretary General is expected in Burundi on Friday, May 5, 2023, to attend the 11th Summit of the Regional Follow-up Mechanism of the Addis Ababa Framework Agreement for Peace, Security and Cooperation for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Region, reported by the UN Bujumbura office.
The UN Secretary General, Antonio Gutterres will attend the meeting along with Heads of States of the Signatory Countries and the co-guarantors of the Framework Agreement in Bujumbura.
The UN General Secretary Office has announced that Antonio Gutteres, the UN Secretary General will participate in the meeting determined to end the cycles of conflict and violence that had characterized Africa’s Great Lakes region, particularly the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo scheduled on Saturday in Bujumbura.
Antonio Gutteres will head to Bujumbura, the economic capital of Bujumbura from Kenya in a state visit.
The three-day meeting set to kick off on Tuesday, will overhaul the recommendations of the February’s summit held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2013, that focused on the elimination of all the negative armed groups in the Eastern Democratic of Republic of Congo.
The 11th high-level meeting of the Regional Oversight Mechanism of the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of Congo and the region planned for 6 May 2023 in Bujumbura, is organized with the support of the Guarantor institutions of the Framework agreement.
The Guarantor institutions of the Framework are: the United Nations ; the African Union,the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, and the Southern African Development Community.
The 2013’s summit centered on the M23 which had just been defeated by the UN forces in partnership with Tanzania’s and South Africa’s forces, agreed on the uprooting of all negative armed forces in Eastern Democratic of Republic of Congo.
After 10 years, more than 100 negative armed forces are observed in that area where M23 has resurged its attacks on DRC with much higher potentiality though it has retreated from the captured areas for the last two months.
The pundits warn that the two-month M23’s withdrawal will not last while M23 urge it will never lay weapons down if Government does not open direct peace talks with M23 in what the Government of Kinshasa vehemently denies.
The Summit due to kick off in Bujumbura, will also examine the Luanda’s and Nairobi’s settlements and agreements.
On Saturday, Antonio Gutteres will meet and talk to Burundi’s president Evariste Ndayishimiye along Great Lakes’ heads of states on the establishment of agreements as stated by his office.
The regional forces deployed in the East of DRC control all the previous areas that had been seized by M23 while the political resolution is going on.
The ongoing summit in Bujumbura for the same matter is set to gather Southern African countries’ representatives such as Angola, South Africa, Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia.
The United Nations has been a key partner in promoting peace, security, and stability in the Great Lakes region of Africa. The Secretary-General’s visit to Bujumbura highlights the United Nations’ commitment to supporting the implementation of the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework and the Luanda and Nairobi agreements.
The Secretary-General’s visit is an opportunity to further strengthen the partnership between the United Nations and the Great Lakes African countries and to support their efforts to achieve lasting peace and stability in the region
