Brussels, 06/11/2008 (Agence Europe) - Louis Michel, EU Development and Humanitarian Aid Commissioner, will be attending a regional peace summit in Nairobi, Kenya, on Friday 7 November 2008 to seek a political solution to the conflict in the Kivu region in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that has caused a major humanitarian crisis.
The summit will be attended by the heads of state of all the countries in the region (DRC, Congo - the former French colony, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi) and leading figures from the European Union, the United States and regional organisations (African Union, CDAA, COMESA and the EAC) under the auspices of the United Nations.
Louis Michel travelled to Kinshasa, the capital of DRC, and Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, last week, where he got DRC President Joseph Kabila and Rwandan President Paul Kagamé to agree to attend a peace summit, and the commissioner was relieved that the summit was going ahead. All sides will be meeting around the same table to discuss and work on a peaceful solution to the problem in the Kivu region in the east of the DRC, based on the November 2007 Nairobi Agreement and the Kivu region peace, security and development conference in Goma in January 2008. Ahead of this new Nairobi summit, Louis Michel explained in a press release that the summit would aim to draw up a roadmap with tangible outcomes to be achieved and application modalities. The Nairobi document should reflect a common approach to the threats to peace and stability from foreign and domestic armed groups in the DRC, he said, noting that it would have to be operational and effective, setting out how the commitments made by the parties concerned would be monitored. In terms of the domestic situation in the DRC, the summit should also facilitate the implementation of direct political dialogue between the Congolese authorities and the comité national de defense du peuple (CNDP). This is also what is set out in the crisis resolution programme endorsed by the DRC government on 29 October 2008, which also stressed the need to take action on all factors underlying the conflict, like the presence of Rwanda Democratic Liberation Forces (FDLR) forces in the DRC and the illegal exploitation of mineral resources. (A.N./transl.fl)