By
Sylvain Muyali
At the recent third joint ministerial meeting of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), the SADC renewed their declaration to use force should Rwandan FDLR rebels fail to comply with the voluntary disarmament in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The meeting, held earlier this month in Luanda, Angola again raised the question of whether or not force should be used against the rebels following the expiration of the original six month agreement originally effective from July 2014.
During these meetings chaired by the Angolan collectively Minister of Foreign Affairs, President of the Regional Commonwealth Georges Cinkoti and his counterpart Zimbabwean President of the Council of Ministers Simbarashe Mubengeguyi, participants adopted the aforementioned calendar as recommended by the heads of defense and security of the ICGLR and SADC as to how the voluntary disarmament of the FDLR should be implemented.
They also recalled the decision taken at the second meeting in Angola, mini summit in August 2014 and again in Angola last month’s 34th summit held in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe on the voluntary disarmament of the FDLR.
Participants noted the progress in restoring peace and security in the IS part of the DRC and the signatories to the framework of Addis Ababa Agreement countries. In addition to this, the third joint meeting welcomed the efforts of MONUSCO and the DRC’s disarmament and relocation of FDLR rebels to date, deploring however the recent attacks on civilians in the eastern region of the DRC by negative forces, condemning their barbarity accordingly.
