Former Botswana President Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi has been endorsed to join the five-member panel of peace facilitators for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Masisi was endorsed to join the panel during the joint Extraordinary Summit of the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC)virtual meeting co-chaired by President William Ruto and President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe on Wednesday, August 13.
The five-member panel of facilitators, which is mandated to steer inclusive dialogue in eastern DRC, includes former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and retired Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Former President of the Central African Republic Catherine Samba Panza and former President of Ethiopia Sahle-Work Zewde are also part of the panel.
During the meeting, the leaders also endorsed the merging of the Nairobi and Luanda peace processes into a single African-led mediation framework, supported by the African Union, to improve coordination and impact.
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The summit also approved key operational documents and a resource mobilization plan to sustain the initiative.
In addition, the summit welcomed the progress from the Washington and Doha diplomatic tracks in addressing the eastern DRC crisis.
They also commended Presidents Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Félix Tshisekedi of DRC for embracing dialogue, and acknowledged the facilitation of the United States of America and Qatar.
President Ruto reaffirmed that a united, African-led approach is the surest path to durable peace and stability in eastern DRC.
This comes days after Ruto and Mnangagwa chaired a joint EAC-SADC summit with the panel of facilitators at State House, Nairobi.
The meeting was also attended by African Union Commission Chairperson, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, Prime CS Musalia Mudavadi, Zimbabwe Foreign Affairs and International Trade Amon Murwira, EAC Secretary General Veronica Nduva, and SADC Secretary General Elias Mpedi Magosi.
The meeting resolved to centralize and coordinate resource mobilization, including humanitarian support, under the African Union Commission.
EAC&SADC also called on the AUC to inform all ongoing initiatives and stakeholders to align with the African-led process.
The meeting further agreed to convene a virtual Extraordinary Joint EAC-SADC Summit within seven days to communicate its outcomes, and tasked the AUC with relaying these outcomes to all African Union Member States.
