Luanda – The Head of State, João Lourenço on Sunday returned to the country after participating in the 37th ordinary summit of the African Union (AU), held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Saturday.
At the 4 de Fevereiro international airport, President João Lourenço and the First Lady of the Republic, Ana Dias Lourenço, were welcomed by the Vice-President of the Republic, Esperança da Costa.
During his staying in Ethiopia, he had separated meetings with his counterparts from Rwanda Paul Kagamé, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Félix Tshisekedi.
President João Lourenço also met with Aby Ahmed who is the Prime Minister of Ethiopia of the host country for the AU event, with whom he analysed bilateral relations following the signing of a General Cooperation Agreement, as well as visa exemptions for diplomatic and service passports.
His first activity in the Ethiopian capital city was to head an extraordinary summit on the situation related to the eastern region of DRC. The meeting convened on his initiative was attended by nine head of states, including Paul Kagamé and Félix Tshisekedi.
The Angolan head of state called the meeting in his capacity as AU mediator in the conflict between the DRC and Rwanda and as part of diplomatic efforts to relaunch the peace process in the east of the DRC.
At the time, he explained that he had decided to invite his African counterparts to the meeting in an attempt to "see if we can get the process of pacification in the DRC back on track".
He recalled that this process had come very close to making progress, at least with regard to one of the negative forces operating in the DRC, namely M23 movement, but that unfortunately it had suffered a major setback.
Currently, the peace process in the DRC is described as being in an "explosive phase" with the resumption and worsening of military confrontations between government forces and the M23 (Movement of 23 March) rebels. OHA/MRA/DOJ
