BUJUMBURA July 8th (ABP) – Burundi hosted on Tuesday July 6, 2021, in Bujumbura, the fourth meeting of heads of intelligence and security services of member countries of the Contact and Coordination Group (GCC), namely the Burundi, DR Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania, a check on the site by ABP has revealed.
That meeting, which was held under the theme “Confidence building: towards enhanced regional cooperation to neutralize negative forces”, was attended by the special envoy of the United Nations Secretary General for the Great Lakes region (RGL ), the AU Special Representative for the GLR, the Executive Secretary of the ICGLR and the High Representative of the President of the DRC to the Technical Support Committee and Coordinator of the National Monitoring Mechanism (MNS) of the Framework Agreement from Addis Ababa.
It also saw the participation of the special representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in the DRC and head of the UN Mission for Stabilization in DR Congo (MONUSCO), heads of the intelligence and security services of member countries of the GCC and many others. All these distinguished guests took turns to express their gratitude and wishes to the GCC member countries.
In his opening speech to the said meeting, the administrator of Burundi intelligence and head of the Burundian delegation to those meetings, Major general Ildéphonse Habarurema, said that this meeting held in Bujumbura is the 4th of its kind, after those held successively in Kinshasa (DRC) on June 6, 2019, in Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania) from November 4 to 6, 2019 and in Nairobi (Kenya) from February 3 to 4, 2020, with the support of representatives of the institutions responsible for the Framework Agreement for Peace, Security and Cooperation for the DRC and the region.
According to that Burundian authority, peace and security remain prerequisites for stability and sustainable development without which the well-being, tranquility and tranquility of the populations of the GCC member states are far from being a reality. The presence of negative forces in eastern DRC poses a threat to the entire region, Habarurema said.
“It is with the comprehensive approach and enhanced regional cooperation agreed at the 9th summit of the regional monitoring mechanism held on October 8, 2018 in Kampala (Uganda) that we will succeed in eradicating these negative forces which continue to mourn our respective States”, he underlined, recalling that this day was devoted to the examination and adoption of the action plan (2021-2023) of the GCC which results from the work accomplished with the consensus of the experts.
According to the AU representative for the GLR, Mr. Basile Ikuebe, the effective and quality participation in this meeting reflects the firm commitment of the GCC member states to ensure increased regional cooperation with a view to complete neutralization and without delay. negative forces.
The special envoy of the United Nations Secretary General for the GLR, for his part, expressed his sincere thanks and his deep appreciation to the government of Burundi for having accepted to host this 4th meeting of the heads of the intelligence and security services of the Burundi, DRC, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania.
The special representative of the UN Secretary General in the DRC and head of MONUSCO, Mrs. Bintou Keita, noted that in the context of partnership between the UN, the AU, the ICGLR and many other communities, it is important that those concerned are involved in complementary activities and not duplication.