Pretoria: President Cyril Ramaphosa is in Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), on a working visit aimed at bringing peace to the central African nation.
Ramaphosa is participating in the 10th high-level meeting of the regional oversight mechanism of the peace, security and co-operation framework for the DRC and the region. He is representing South Africa as a signatory to the framework.
“President Ramaphosa will attend this gathering at the invitation of the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo and current chair of the regional oversight mechanism, His Excellency President Felix Tshisekedi,” said acting Presidency spokesperson Tyrone Seale.
“Heads of State and government of the signatory countries to the peace, security and cooperation framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the support of the guarantor institutions, namely, the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU). The International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) will convene in Kinshasa on Thursday, 24 February,” said Seale.
He said the meeting would be on political and security co-operation, as well as initiatives to deepen economic development and regional integration through integrative cross-border projects.
The regional oversight mechanism is the main oversight body under the peace, security and co-operation framework agreement for the DRC and the region
“It meets once a year, at the head of state and government level, to review progress in the implementation of national and regional commitments under the framework agreement signed by 13 countries and four guarantor institutions (UN, AU, ICGLR and SADC) on 24 February 2013 in Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia,” said Seale.
The initial signatory countries were Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Congo, Rwanda, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
Kenya and Sudan joined on January 31, 2014, becoming the 12th and 13th signatories to the peace agreement.
President Ramaphosa is accompanied by Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Dr Naledi Pandor.
IOL