{"id":53551,"date":"2025-03-25T00:39:14","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T00:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/three-former-african-presidents-join-drc-peace-facilitators-panel\/"},"modified":"2025-03-25T00:40:39","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T00:40:39","slug":"three-former-african-presidents-join-drc-peace-facilitators-panel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/three-former-african-presidents-join-drc-peace-facilitators-panel\/","title":{"rendered":"Three former African presidents join DRC peace facilitators&#8217; panel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a virtual summit chaired by Kenyan President William Ruto and Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Monday night, regional heads of state appointed three former African presidents\u2014Kgalema Motlanthe of South Africa, Catherine Samba-Panza of the Central African Republic, and Sahle-Work Zewde of Ethiopia\u2014to an expanded team that will lead peace talks between the AFC-M23 rebel group and the Congolese government. The panel already included Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya and Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>The summit cited the need to ensure gender balance, regional, and linguistic inclusivity in the team, leading to the appointment of the three additional former presidents. Former Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, who was part of the initial team, has been dropped.<\/p>\n<p>The Heads of State and Government from 14 EAC and SADC member countries participated in the Monday night meeting, focusing on the deteriorating security situation in eastern DRC and the implementation of a comprehensive peace roadmap.<\/p>\n<p>The Joint Summit, attended by President Paul Kagame, mandated the EAC and SADC Secretariats to formally notify the panel members and convey the outcomes of the summit to the African Union (AU) and United Nations (UN) Security Council.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, the co-chairs, Kenyatta and Obasanjo, were directed to convene a briefing session with the facilitators within seven days, to be conducted jointly by the EAC, SADC, and the African Union.<\/p>\n<p>The Monday summit also adopted a comprehensive report from the Joint EAC-SADC Meeting of Ministers, which outlines immediate, medium-, and long-term measures to achieve lasting peace and security in the region. The Heads of State emphasized the urgent implementation of these measures to address the ongoing conflict.<\/p>\n<p>The new appointments follow a joint summit held on February 8, where the EAC and SADC proposed merging the Nairobi Process, an EAC-led mediation effort led by Kenyatta, with the Luanda Process, a separate peace initiative facilitated by Angolan President Jo\u00e3o Louren\u00e7o under the African Union.<\/p>\n<p>The expanded team marks a renewed regional commitment to resolving the protracted conflict in eastern DRC. The newly appointed facilitators are expected to play a pivotal role in mediation efforts and ensuring the successful execution of the peace roadmap after months of fighting between the Congolese army and rebels who accuse the government of poor governance and the persecution of Congolese Rwandophones in the east.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-84197 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/a-44-ff9ab.jpg\" alt=\"Former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-84196 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/c-45-46ee6.jpg\" alt=\"Former President of Nigeria Olusegun Obasanjo.\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-84195 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/catherine_samba-panza_2014-09-26.jpg\" alt=\"Former President of Central African Republic Catherine Samba-Panza.\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-84193 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/presidente_ethiopie_clean.jpg\" alt=\"Sahle-Work Zewde is a former President of Ethiopia.\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-84191 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/kgalema_motlanthe__2009_world_economic_forum_on_africa-1__cropped_.jpg\" alt=\"Kgalema Motlanthe is a former Head of State of South Africa.\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A joint summit of East African Community (EAC) and Southern African Development Community (SADC) Heads of State has appointed five eminent persons to a newly established Panel of Facilitators to address the ongoing security crisis in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000084189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[75],"byline":[192],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-53551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-homenews","byline-wycliffe-nyamasege"],"bylines":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"contributors":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"featured_image":{"id":2000084189,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mixcollage-25-mar-2025-12-27-am-2285.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mixcollage-25-mar-2025-12-27-am-2285.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mixcollage-25-mar-2025-12-27-am-2285.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mixcollage-25-mar-2025-12-27-am-2285.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mixcollage-25-mar-2025-12-27-am-2285.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/mixcollage-25-mar-2025-12-27-am-2285.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000084189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53551"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=53551"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=53551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}