Nairobi, 5 May 2021 - Huang Xia, United Nations Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region, met with Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan in Nairobi, Kenya, on her first official visit to the country.

During the meeting, Special Envoy Xia took the opportunity to congratulate President Hassan on her accession as Head of State, the first woman to hold that position in the history of her country and of the Great Lakes region. The two officials exchanged on security and development issues in the region.

The Special Envoy also briefed the President on his Office’s efforts to promote the full implementation of the Peace, Security and Cooperation (PSC) Framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the region. In the same vein, he mentioned current collaboration between his Office and the other co-Guarantors of the PSC Framework, namely the African Union, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR). He informed on initiatives in the fields of security cooperation, regional economic integration as well as efforts to curb the illegal exploitation of natural resources in the region, particularly in eastern DRC. The Special Envoy highlighted the Great Lakes Investment and Trade Conference which his Office is organizing jointly with the Government of Rwanda and the ICGLR. The Conference is scheduled for November of this year and will be held in Kigali, Rwanda.

Finally, the Special Envoy briefed the President on the new United Nations Strategy for Peace Consolidation, Conflict Prevention and Conflict Resolution in the Great Lakes Region and the ongoing efforts to develop an action plan for its implementation. He welcomed the sustained participation of the United Republic of Tanzania throughout this process.

President Hassan and Special Envoy Xia agreed to continue these discussions in the context of an official visit of the Special Envoy to the United Republic of Tanzania.