Museveni, UNSC delegation discuss peace in the Great Lakes region
October 8, 2013 (KAMPALA) – Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni on Monday met a delegation from the United Nations Security Council currently on a visit of the Great Lakes region.
A statement released by Museveni’s office on Tuesday said he and the UN delegation discussed ‘‘peace and security aimed at stabilising the Great Lakes region’’.
The UN Security Council delegation includes envoys from Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, China, France, Guatemala, and Luxembourg. The United Kingdom, the United States, Morocco, Pakistan, South Korea, the Russian Federation, Rwanda and Togo are also represented.
The UN delegation is headed by the United Kingdom’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant.
The team has already visited the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Uganda. It will next visit Ethiopia where they will meet Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and the African Union Peace and Security Council.
In a meeting with the UN team, Museveni is said to have reiterated his support for efforts by the United Nations aimed at bringing peace in the Great Lakes region.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a vast country in central Africa, is key to peace and security in the Great Lakes region.
The eastern part of DRC has an array of rebels and militia groups. In July, a Ugandan rebel group, the Allied Democratic Army (ADF) attacked the eastern DRC town of Kamango sending 67,000 refugees flocking into Uganda. Uganda expressed alarm at the influx of refugees saying it was putting its already poor social services under more stress.
In September, fresh fighting broke out in eastern DRC between the M23 rebels and the Congolese army. Congo accuses the Rwanda of supporting the M23 but Rwanda denies the accusations.
The United Nations has 20,000 peace keepers in DRC including a brigade made up of 2,500 personnel mandated to use force against the rebels and fight alongside the DRC army.
The M23 and the DRC government are back at the roundtable in the Kampala peace talks aimed at ending conflict in Eastern Congo.
(ST)