EA leaders in Nairobi for talks on regional security
Thursday April 21 2022
Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta and his DR Congo counterpart Felix Tshisekedi at State House, Nairobi on April 21, 2022. PHOTO | COURTESY | STATE HOUSE NAIROBI
Leaders from East Africa converged in Kenya's capital Nairobi for a meeting on regional peace and security.
The meeting on Thursday was hosted by Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta, with Presidents Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), Evariste Ndayishimiye (Burundi) and Felix Tshisekedi (DR Congo) in attendance.
Rwanda's President Paul Kagame was absent, but he sent a representative -- Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta.
The DRC recently joined the EastAfrican Community (EAC) as its seventh member. On April 8, President Kenyatta, in his capacity as the current EAC chairperson, and President Tshisekedi, on behalf of the Congo, signed the treaty of accession into the EAC.
On the day of the signing, President Tshisekedi voiced Kinshasa’s security concerns, saying security will be crucial for his country, now the richest in the bloc by natural resources, but impoverished by conflict and plunder.
At the time, sources told The EastAfrican that President Tshisekedi’s immediate concerns revolved around the re-emergence of the M23 rebel movement, which attacked government troops the same week Kinshasa was admitted into the EAC.
But there have also been concerns over the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which Uganda and Kinshasa have been fighting in the eastern part of DRC since last November.
Earlier, there had also been concerns that with Kinshasa joining the EAC, the conflict in eastern DRC could now be a regional problem, hence needing regional effort to tackle it.