Key actors in the Great Lakes region meet to discuss new initiatives to quell armed groups in the region   Entebbe (Uganda), 20 November 2018 – Representatives from the United Nations (UN), the African Union (AU), the International Conference on the Great

Senior officials from the UN, the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), the Republic of Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Burundi at the coordination meeting on ‘Delivering Peace and Prosperity in the Great Lakes region’, Entebbe, Uganda.

23 Nov 2018

Key actors in the Great Lakes region meet to discuss new initiatives to quell armed groups in the region   Entebbe (Uganda), 20 November 2018 – Representatives from the United Nations (UN), the African Union (AU), the International Conference on the Great

Key actors in the Great Lakes region meet to discuss new initiatives to quell armed groups in the region

Entebbe (Uganda), 20 November 2018 – Representatives from the United Nations (UN), the African Union (AU), the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), as well as senior officials from Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Burundi, met on 20 November in Entebbe, Uganda, to discuss and agree on concrete steps to address the threat of illegal armed groups often referred to as ‘negative forces’ in the Great Lakes region, particularly in eastern DRC.

This meeting follows the heads of State and Government summit at the meeting of the 9th Regional Oversight Mechanism of the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework agreement, which took place in Kampala, Uganda, on 8 October 2018. At their summit, the heads of State and the regional partners (UN, AU, ICGLR and SADC) recommended that new initiatives be taken to effectively address the threat of negative forces in the region. These efforts are to be spearheaded by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni as the new chairperson of the ICGLR.

Today’s meeting discussed opportunities to implement development initiatives to address the structural causes of instability in the Great Lakes region, and proposed concrete steps to enhance cooperation and partnership among the core countries of the region (Uganda, DRC, Rwanda and Burundi) to drastically reduce the threat of armed groups in the region.