New York, USA, May 08, 2023-/African Media Agency(AMA)/The UN Secretary General on Saturday called on the armed groups operating in the Great Lakes region, particularly in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), to lay down their arms, during a summit of the regional mechanism for monitoring the peace agreement signed ten years ago in Addis Ababa.
“The signing – ten years ago now – of the Framework Agreement raised a lot of hopes. It marked a turning point, during which the countries of the region made concrete commitments in order to put an end to the recurring cycles of violence – notably in the east of the DRC – and to build lasting peace and security”, declared UN chief António Guterres at the 11th summit of the Regional Monitoring Mechanism of the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the region, held in Bujumbura, the capital from Burundi.
He congratulated the signatory countries as well as the guarantor institutions for the work done to implement the Framework Agreement but regretted that “the current crisis underlines all the path that remains to be traveled”.
Humanitarian dramas
“Despite our collective efforts, more than a hundred armed groups – Congolese and foreign – still operate today and thus threaten the stability of the entire Great Lakes region. The presence of these armed groups – M23, ADF, FDLR, CODECO, RED-Tabara and others – leads to humanitarian tragedies and serious human rights abuses, including sexual violence. It also fuels recent mistrust and tensions between countries in the region,” Guterres said.
He noted that in the DRC, since the resurgence of the M23 in November 2021, more than 500,000 people have had to flee and that the situation in the province of Ituri also remains extremely worrying.
“It is time for the violence to end. I reiterate my call to all armed groups: Lay down their arms – immediately – and join the demobilization, disarmament and reintegration process,” said the Secretary-General, who also urged political and community leaders “to put an end to hate speech and incitement to violence”.
He called on all parties to implement the decisions taken in the Luanda and Nairobi processes “without delay and without exception”, saying that “only dialogue – constant and sincere dialogue – will make it possible to find lasting compromises. “.
The UN chief hailed recent efforts by regional leaders to avoid an escalation of tensions and pledged that the UN and its mission in the DRC, MONUSCO, would continue to support regional initiatives, including the East African Community Regional Force, calling on all international partners to do the same.
He hailed the consensus of actors in the region around non-military measures aimed at the disarmament, return and reintegration of foreign armed groups in their countries of origin. He considered that the fight against impunity was another important step and that the perpetrators of cross-border and international crimes must be brought to justice.
Natural resources
The Secretary-General recalled that the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the region are rich in natural resources, with the Congo Basin hosting the second largest tropical forest in the world, representing 10% of global biodiversity. “It has an abundance of unique animal and plant species and many valuable minerals,” he noted.
“The heritage of the DRC belongs to the Congolese people”, he insisted, calling for ensuring that it becomes “a source of prosperity and development, and not of conflicts, rivalries and unsustainable exploitation”. .
According to him, peace and development must go hand in hand, and for peace to be sustainable, “the voices of women, youth and displaced people must be fully heard – in all political, security and judicial processes”.
In this context, he encouraged the signatory countries, the African Union, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region and the Southern African Development Community to redouble their efforts.
He thus welcomed the initiative taken by the Peace and Security Council of the African Union in February to revitalize the Framework.
“The United Nations remains fully engaged, at your side. Only together can we achieve the common goals of peace, security and cooperation of the Addis Ababa Framework. The peoples of the region are counting on us,” he concluded.
Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) for UN Info.
Source : African Media Agency (AMA)