… Quo vadis with regional conflict?
RUNDU – The conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) could become a threat to neighbouring states only if member states of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) not pull their weight to ensure that peace returns to the DRC, says Minister of Foreign Affairs Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah.
Calling for the full cooperation of all negotiating countries towards finding a solution to the marathon conflict, she yesterday confidently told New Era: “[The DRC conflict could only cross into neighbouring countries] if all of us are not speaking the same language. At the moment, the neighbouring countries are aware of their roles, so that will not happen.”
Nandi-Ndaitwah, along with President Hifikepunye Pohamba took part in the SADC International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) summit with fellow SADC heads of state in Pretoria, South Africa on Monday and Tuesday this week. The summit sought to find ways of driving the M23 rebels out of the eastern DRC, from where they have plunged the region into serious conflict that has left millions of people displaced. Heads of state from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Malawi, which holds the chair of SADC, as well as the president of the DRC, Joseph Kabila, attended the two-day Pretoria meeting.
“The summit reaffirmed that the conflict must be brought to an end. The main focus of the conference was the implementation of the United Nations Peace Framework for the DRC and the region. It is high time that the negative forces in the DRC are eradicated so that the DRC government can focus on delivering services to its people,” she said.
Although Namibia has not sent military troops to the DRC to join the peacekeeping mission, as did other countries, Nandi-Ndaitwah said the technical assistance that Namibia has pledged is equally important.
“Initially more countries pledged to provide their troops but there is a limited number of troops that can go into the DRC. We have therefore pledged technical support to support the governance structures of the DRC. It is important not to overlook the humanitarian side, especially the issue of putting up governance structures. The type of technical support we will provide will be determined by the framework, whether it is in the form of capacity building, municipal services or putting up governance institutions,” she said.
Unconfirmed media reports say the conference also discussed the possibility of reinforcing a UN special brigade deployed in the DRC. On top of the 17 000 peacekeepers already deployed to the DRC, an additional 3 000-strong UN brigade from South Africa, Malawi and Tanzania also joined the intense peacekeeping mission recently.
However, Nandi-Ndaitwah stressed it is also important to look at the humanitarian side of the situation as the military intervention is only aimed at ending the conflict – “so that the DRC government can start looking after its people.”
The United Nations News Centre this week reported that “in the past year, the fighting in DRC has displaced more than 100 000 people, exacerbating an ongoing humanitarian crisis in the region which includes 2.6 million internally displaced persons and 6.4 million in need of food and emergency aid.”
By Mathias Haufiku