2 September
2013 – The United Nations Special Envoy for Africa's Great Lake's region is in
the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to start a regional tour with envoys
from the African Union, European Union and the United States to bolster
diplomatic efforts for peace.
Mary
Robinson's visit comes amid renewed intense fighting in the eastern DRC where
over the past year, the M23, along with other armed groups, has clashed
repeatedly with the DRC national forces (FARDC).
“I urge all
parties concerned to immediately stop military confrontations in the eastern
Democratic Republic of the Congo and work to rebuild trust in peace efforts,”
the Special Envoy said at
her arrival in the capital, Kinshasa, on Sunday.
“What the
DRC and the region need is peace, stability and economic development. This can
only be achieved by tackling the root causes of the conflict through a
comprehensive political process,” Mrs. Robinson stressed.
The envoy is
accompanied by Martin Kobler, the new Special Representative of the
Secretary-General for the DRC and head of the UN mission there (MONUSCO).
Prior to the
start of the joint regional tour, she and Mr. Kobler are meeting with UN
partners in the DRC, and travelling to Goma to “express solidarity with the
civilian population and MONUSCO,” according to Mrs. Robinson's office.
During the
four-day visit, scheduled to start on Wednesday, Mrs. Robinson and Mr. Kobler
will speak with senior government officials and representatives of local
authorities, the international community and civil society in the DRC, Uganda
and Rwanda.
They will be
joined by Boubacar Diarra, Special Representative of the African Union; Koen
Vervaeke, European Union Senior Coordinator for the Great Lakes region; and
Russ Feingold, US Special Envoy for the African Great Lakes region and the DRC.
The goal of
the trip is to discourage further hostilities and to energize political efforts
for peace in the region, including the so-called Kampala talks held under the
auspices of the Chairperson of the International Conference for the Great Lakes
Region (ICGLR), Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.
While in
Kampala on 5 September, Mrs. Robinson and the envoys will attend an
extraordinary session of the IGCLR focused on the crisis in eastern DRC.
According to
Mrs. Robinson's office, they will stress the urgency of steps forward in the
implementation of the 11-nation Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for
the DRC and the region signed earlier this year under UN auspices as a
comprehensive approach to sustainable peace in the region.
Mrs.
Robinson had dubbed the accord a “framework of hope” and has repeatedly said
that there is a renewed opportunity in eastern DRC and the Great Lakes to
address the underlying causes of the conflict and stop the violence for good.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday
said he was “deeply concerned” about the escalating violence and in particular
by the indiscriminate shelling by the armed group M23 which caused deaths,
injuries and damage among the civilian population in the eastern provinces as
well as the immediate border area in Rwanda. A UN peacekeeper also died in one
of the attacks.
In the past
year, the fighting has displaced more than 100,000 people, exacerbating an
ongoing humanitarian crisis in the region which includes 2.6 million internally
displaced people (IDPs) and 6.4 million in need of food and emergency aid.
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