The quadripartite summit on peace and security in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is scheduled for June 23 in the city of Luanda. The CIRGL, SADC, EAC and ECCAS will participate in this meeting placed under the aegis of the African Union and also bringing together the United Nations. The DRC hopes that this high-level meeting will bring about an improvement in the coordination of regional peace efforts and initiatives which are multiplying at the same time.
The Congolese authorities are indeed concerned about the security situation in the east of the country. Several peace initiatives are carried out at the same time to fight against armed groups. Christophe Lutundula, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, had also stressed during a briefing with the press that “too many cooks spoil the sauce especially if we do not know who does what and who does not do what”. It is important that this meeting makes it possible to clarify the roles of the various military forces and diplomats on the ground.
The Congolese government will also pay attention to the sovereignty of the country during this summit. “We do not outsource security because we hear from left to right some who talk about the outsourcing or outsourcing of the defense of our country, it’s not like that”, underlined Christophe Lutundula.
Indeed, the security situation in the eastern part of the DRC is worrying, despite the existence of several peacekeeping forces there. The regional force EACRF, created in 2022 to stop the advance of the armed group M23, has recovered some of the rebel strongholds but the rebels remain present on the ground. However, the DRC welcomes the approval by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on May 8 for the deployment of a regional force to restore security in the east of the country.
This quadripartite summit can therefore represent a real opportunity to clarify the roles and actions of the various peacekeeping forces, and thus improve the coordination of regional efforts for peace and security in eastern DRC.