KINSHASA, DR Congo
Seven African heads of state gathered in Kinshasa on Thursday to assess a 2013 agreement aimed at cementing peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo's violence-torn east and the Great Lakes region.
The Peace, Security and
Cooperation Framework aims at fostering efforts to stabilize the region.
Millions of people died from
violence, disease or starvation in the 1996-7 and 1998-2003 Congo Wars -- a
conflict that enmeshed countries from around east and central Africa.
The Kinshasa summit, the 10th
in the series, brought together the presidents of the DRC, South Africa,
Uganda, Angola, the Republic of Congo, Burundi and the Central African
Republic, a diplomat said.
The summit was expected to
express concern about logistical and other support for armed groups that remain
active in the region.
It would "take note"
of joint DRC-Ugandan operations against the most notorious group, the Allied
Democratic Forces (ADF), the diplomat said.
The historic operation was
launched in the border area late last November, prompted by a string of
massacres in eastern DRC and bomb attacks in the Ugandan capital Kampala.
The summit would also
congratulate improved relations between Rwanda and Uganda and between Rwanda
and Burundi after a long period of tension.
The 2013 accord was eventually
signed by a total of 11 countries, including Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania and
Zambia.
The next summit will be hosted
in 2023 by Burundi.
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