Story by Oleen Ndori, Foreign Desk Editor
THE Southern African Development Community (SADC) and East African Community (EAC) say they remain committed to finding lasting peace in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
The second phase of the withdrawal of the SADC Mission in DRC (SAMIDRC) is underway, with South Africa’s first group of forces expected home this Friday.
On the side-lines of the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo in Changsha, China, ministerial co-chairs of SADC and EAC, Professor Amon Murwira and Dr Musalia Mudavadi met and deliberated on the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“We were just conferring between ourselves on the process that we are undertaking, on the peace process in the Eastern DRC, and the bureaucratic issues that we have to tackle. So we have had a very good meeting to arrange our next meetings. We will be informing our respective chairpersons of SADC and EAC on our small talk, because as we do small talk, we are small people,” said Professor Murwira.
Dr Mudavadi weighed in, “I concur with him, just to make sure that we harmonise our processes around the EAC – SADC peace process within the DRC. So that was the conversation.”
The conflict in the DRC has displaced millions and the historic engagements between the two regional blocs are expected to yield positive results.
Various attempts to bring peace between the M23 and government-backed forces in the region have not been successful, with the largest affected groups being women and children.
