President Uhuru Kenyatta, the current EAC chairperson received his East African Community counterparts Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), Paul Kagame (Rwanda), Evariste Ndayishimiye (Burundi), Salva Kiir Mayardit (South Sudan) and Felix Tshisekedi (DR Congo) at State House, Nairobi for today’s 3rd EAC Heads of State Conclave on Inter-Congolese Dialogue of the Nairobi Process on the Peace and Security Situation in Eastern DR Congo. The high-profile regional summit, is the third such gathering in a space of just over two months.
The meeting is an acceleration of ongoing regional efforts to attain sustainable peace and security in Eastern DR Congo. The meeting is taking place amid growing tensions with Kigali blaming Kinshasa of escalating cross-border provocations, with the latest incident taking place only last week when an armed Congolese soldier crossed the common border in Rubavu and opened fire at Rwandan security and migration personnel before he was shot dead 25 metres inside the Rwandan territory.
“The problems affecting the region like the crisis in Congo need a collective approach from all regional members of the East African Community. We must insist on working together because these people have suffered a lot.” President Yoweri Museveni said.
DR Congo is the newest member of the seven-nation bloc, the others being Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan of the United Republic of Tanzania was represented at the meeting by the country’s ambassador to Kenya, High Commissioner John Stephen Simbachawene.
