African leaders call for peace and cooperation at Great Lakes Summit

Transcript

00:00A summit aimed at establishing peace and security in the Great Lakes region.

00:14Four presidents and senior officials from the 12 countries that make up the International

00:19Conference on the Great Lakes region gathered in Kinshasa to discuss ways of ending the

00:24conflicts that have plagued their region for decades.

00:28The Democratic Republic of Congo has taken over the rotating presidency of the body from

00:33Angola.

00:34The Pact on Security, Stability and Development of 2006 remains the bedrock of our community.

00:49It is time to accelerate the application of the Protocol of Non-Aggression.

00:54Sudan, the Central African Republic and the DRC are some of the member states of the Great

01:01Lakes body that are facing conflicts.

01:04Fighting between DRC government forces and the M23 rebels has left thousands dead and displaced

01:11millions since late 2021.

01:14But the two warring parties have signed a framework deal for peace in the Qatari capital of Doha.

01:20The UN Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region, Huang Xia, called for an end to the fighting.

01:30The resolution of the crisis in eastern DRC requires a holistic and long-term approach which focuses

01:39on the root causes of the chronic instability.

01:43African leaders have been advocating for the resolution of conflicts in the continent by

01:47themselves, but several failed attempts in ending the DRC conflict led the U.S. and Qatar

01:54to step in.

01:55The DRC president and his Rwandan counterpart are expected to sign a comprehensive peace deal

02:01in the U.S. capital later this month.