By ARNALDO VIEIRA

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Angolan President João Lourenço will Monday host his DR Congo counterpart Joseph Kabila at Benguela Province's Lobito municipality, media confirmed.

According to the Angolan private OPAÍS daily, the leaders will analyse the current situation in DRC, particularly the elections scheduled for December 23.

President Kabila last Thursday left his country and the world guessing over his political plans, five months ahead of crucial elections.

In a state-of-the-nation speech that had sparked intense speculation of an announcement, the Congolese leader vowed to stand by the December 23 date for the poll, and "unequivocally respect the constitution".

But the long speech enumerating his government's policies failed to spell out whether he would seek a new term in office.

Deal brokered

President Kabila, 46, has been in power since 2001, despite his constitutional term in office expiring in December 2016.

He was just 29 when he took over as president from his father, Laurent-Desire Kabila, who was assassinated by a bodyguard.

Following a deal brokered by the Catholic Church, President Kabila agreed that new elections could be held by the end of 2017.

The law allows him to remain in office until a successor is elected, but thee failure to hold the elections has since sparked a series of violent protests in major towns across the country.

In May, during his visit to France, President Lourenço discussed the DRC situation with President Emmanuel Macron and announced a Luanda summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders to address the regional security concerns.

Bloc’s chairmanship

However, the summit was later postponed, on the request of President Kabila.

In April, Luanda hosted the SADC leaders’ extraordinary summit to analyse the situation in the DRC and Lesotho.

The meeting featured leaders from the host nation, Namibia, Zambia, South Africa, Swaziland (now eSwatini), Tanzania, DRC and Lesotho.

South Africa currently holds the chairmanship of the 16-member SADC bloc, while Angola heads the SADC Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation organ.

Botswana hosts the SADC Secretariat while Namibia will take over the bloc’s chairmanship from South Africa later this year.