Ssekandi in Brazzaville for DRC peace talks 

The Vice-President Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi is in the Congolese Capital of Brazzaville where he joins other African leaders from the great lakes region to discuss peace and security in the region.

The Brazzaville meeting code named the High Level meeting of Regional Oversight Mechanism of peace, security and cooperation framework for the Democratic Republic of Congo and the region will be the 8th in series.    

The meeting that opens on Thursday is based on the 2013 framework agreement established to support the ongoing regional efforts to achieve peace and stability in the DRC and the region in general.

The AU, International Conference on Great Lakes Region(ICGLR), the South African Development Community (SADC) and the UN are guarantors of the initiative while member states including Angola, Burundi, CAR, Congo Republic, DRC, Kenya, South Sudan, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda are signatories. 

The meeting will among other things take stock of earlier commitments and consider additional measures aimed accelerating neutralisation and pacification of the Eastern DRC and addressing the sticky issue of resettlement of the former combatants.

Ssekandi who is leading the Government delegation to Brazzaville earlier, met with the AU Vice-Chairperson, Thomas Kwesi in Addis Ababa on his way to Congo with whom they discussed the situation in Somalia.

The Vice-President is being accompanied to the meeting by foreign affairs minister Sam Kutesa, defence minister Adolf Mwesigye and several senior technical government officials.