Luanda - Angolan Head of State João Lourenço defended Saturday the urgency of greater coordination among all the actors in the peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in view of the defined peace objectives.
João Lourenço made the appeal at the Extraordinary Summit of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (CIRGL) on peace and security in the East of the DRC and in the Republic of Sudan Saturday in Luanda.
The Angolan president also defended the need to hold a Quadripartite Summit in Luanda, with the presence of representatives from Southern Africa Development Conference (SADC), East African Community of States (IAC), International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) and the Economic Community of Central African States, under the coordination of the African Union (AU).
“I would like count on your support for the implementation of this intention”, he underlined.
As for the situation of the armed conflict on the ground in the East of the DRC, President João Lourenço acknowledged that, in general, the ceasefire has been complied with, with the exception of small incidents normal in processes like this.
However, the Angolan statesman highlighted the need to speed up the process related to the creation of conditions for the cantonment of Congolese citizens who are members of the armed movement “M23”.
João Lourenço, current President of the ICGLR, welcomed the decision that approved the deployment of a regional force as part of the SADC Standby Force, as a regional response to efforts to restore peace and security in the territory of the DRC.
Situation in Sudan
On the outbreak of the conflict in Sudan, since April 15 of the current year, the Angolan President referred to it as being an intricate conflict with dramatic consequences on the humanitarian, economic and regional security levels.
In his speech, João Lourenço noted that in his capacity as Acting President of ICGLR and Champion of the African Union for Peace and Security in Africa, he has sought to monitor the situation very closely.
In this regard, he informed that he held a conversation with Adbel Fattah Al-Burhan, President of the Transitional Sovereign Council of Sudan, with whom he analysed the current situation in that country.
He appealed, at the time, for the belligerent parties to try to find, through the dialogue, a solution to the problem.
He recognised that the situation remains tense, but argued that the fact that a ceasefire is in operation, whose validity should be encouraged, gives some hope that it will be possible to define a negotiating framework that will lead to an effective and lasting peace, -chamber for the transition of power to a civil government that emerges from the will of the people at the ballot box.
At the end of his speech, Angolan Head of State expressed optimism that the conclusions emerging from summit, which ends this Saturday (3), will be useful and likely to help revive the peace processes in the DRC and Sudan.
The event, which includes the participation of some Heads of State or their representatives from the ICGLR, takes place under the motto “For a stable Great Lakes region, towards sustainable development”.
ICGLR was created in 1994, after the political and military conflicts that marked the Great Lakes Region in the early 1990s.
CIRGL brings together Angola, Burundi, the Central African and Democratic Republics of Congo, Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Uganda , Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia.
