Nairobi, Feb 4 Leaders from southern and eastern African countries have resolved to meet for a two-day extraordinary summit to discuss the situation in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Kenyan President William Ruto said Monday.
Ruto said a joint summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the East African Community (EAC) will be held on Friday and Saturday in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to address the conflict in the eastern DRC, Xinhua news agency reported.
"President Samia Suluhu Hassan (Tanzania) has graciously agreed to host the summit to deliberate on the situation in eastern DRC," Ruto said in a statement issued in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.
This followed an agreement between SADC Chairman and Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Ruto, who is also the EAC chairperson.
According to Ruto, DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame have confirmed attendance at the summit, which will be preceded by a ministerial meeting on Friday before the heads of state convene on Saturday. Other leaders who have confirmed participation include President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, and President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of Somalia.
On January 29, heads of state of the EAC called on all parties involved in the conflict in the eastern DRC to cease hostilities and observe an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, allowing displaced populations access to humanitarian services.
Member states of the EAC, an intergovernmental organization that aims to promote economic, political, and social integration in the region, are Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, and Uganda.
SADC leaders on January 31 called for dialogue within all parties to restore peace and security in the eastern DRC.
The bloc expressed concern that the recent attacks continued to worsen the security and humanitarian situation in the DRC, said a communique issued at the end of the SADC Heads of State and Government summit held in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe.
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