Société
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UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim on Friday ended their Great Lakes region tour here on a note that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) peace framework agreement is the best chance to end fighting in the vast central African country.
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The two leaders have been visiting the region since Wednesday, meeting the region's leaders and expressing their commitment to the "Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the DRC and the region" that was signed in February by 11 African nations.
"The framework agreement is the first step in bringing peace and security to this region. Each country's leader must now take full advantage of the opportunity to cement stability and provide the benefits of economic progress to all of their people," said Ban.
"We need to take united action now because peace will not happen without development, and development will not happen without peace," Kim, the World Bank President said.
"The leaders of the Great Lakes region have an opportunity to build on the United Nations' and World Bank Group's commitment to do whatever it takes to end poverty and build prosperity for so many who suffered for years. The world needs to say loud and clear that what has happened for more than a generation in the Great Lakes can no longer continue. It is a stain on our collective moral conscience," Kim added.
The two leaders have been in DRC, Rwanda and now Uganda drumming up support for the framework agreement noting that the region has the chance to achieve something that has eluded its war- weary people for several decades.
The Great Lakes region has been destabilized by years of conflict in the DRC that also has spread to neighboring nations. The instability has destroyed infrastructure, limiting access to electricity and damaging trade corridors, limited governments' ability to deliver basic services to their citizens, weakened health and education systems and led to high unemployment and low economic growth rates.
More than three million Congolese have fled their homes for safety, including 2.6 million displaced inside DRC and 450,000 refugees in neighbouring countries, according to UN.
Despite the challenges, countries in the region are working together to end the fighting in eastern DRC which has also had spillover effects to neighboring countries like Rwanda and Uganda.
A series of regional summits in the last half of late last year led to the halting of fighting between the Congolese troops and the M23 rebels who had captured some territory.
Peace talks between the Congolese government and the M23 rebels opened in the Ugandan capital Kampala in December last year with both sides committing themselves to peaceful means of ending the conflict.
The UN Security Council also accepted the region's request through the African Union to create an intervention force to go after the different rebel groups including the M23 that have kept the mineral rich eastern DRC a volatile place.
The renewed international support to the region also provides hope that after decades of war the region may stabilize.
During Ban and Kim's visit to the region, the World Bank announced 1 billion U.S. dollars in proposed new funding to help countries in the region provide better health and education services, generate more cross-border trade, and fund hydroelectricity projects.
"We pledge to do things differently, and to work more closely together with the leaders of the region," Kim said.
"We hope that Africa's Great Lakes become a global symbol of what is possible when countries work together to lift themselves out of conflict and succeed in boosting economic growth and shared prosperity," Kim said.
The bank expects that the funding will help revitalize economic development, create jobs, and improve the lives of people who have suffered for far too long.
This two pronged approach of pushing for war at the same time promoting peaceful means to end the conflict in Congo is likely to have some negative effect.
The M23 rebels have vowed not to return to the negotiation table if the UN intervention force dares to attack its bases.
The outfit since late April has threatened to attack the towns of Goma, Beni and Butembo in North-Kivu province.
It said it is ready for a showdown if the UN intervention force attacks its bases.
Mary Robinson, Ban Ki Moon's special envoy for the region early this month warned that the ongoing war rhetoric was unhelpful.
She urged the several plays to focus on the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework as the only lasting solution to the conflict in the region.
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