BUJUMBURA April 22nd (ABP) – Burundi Head of State Evariste Ndayishimiye returned on Thursday April 21, 2022 from Nairobi in Kenya where he took part in a meeting of Heads of State of the countries bordering the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), whose main goal was to make an in-depth and objective analysis on the concrete actions to be taken to bring peace to eastern DRC.
The meeting was attended by DRC, Burundi, Uganda and Rwanda, countries that have groups of criminals hiding in eastern DRC, said President Ndayishimiye upon his arrival at the Melchior Ndadaye International Airport, adding that the meeting was chaired and facilitated by the President of the Republic of Kenya, who is at the same time President of the East African Community (EAC), Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta.
The Heads of State noted that the eastern region of the DRC hosts two categories of criminal groups that operate in that part of the DRC. These are local armed groups and foreign armed groups.
For the first category of armed groups, the Heads of State recommended that the latter must participate unconditionally in the political and dialogue process which begins today, April 22, 2022, while foreign armed groups must return unconditionally to their respective countries of origin. Recalcitrants will be considered as negative forces and handled by military mechanisms of the region, the President of the Republic of Burundi revealed.
To that end, the Heads of State have decided to set up the regional force which will carry out operations to restore order in that region of the DRC. They recommended that the chiefs of the defense forces of each country meet in two weeks to plan how the operation will be done with regard to this situation. “And we agreed that within one month, we will meet again to listen to the action plan that will be presented by the chiefs of the defense forces of the respective countries,” President Ndayishimiye continued to say.
President Ndayishimiye took the opportunity to appeal, once more, to Burundians who are outside the country in general and in eastern DRC in particular to return to their native country without any conditions. “If they have committed crimes in the country, they will be treated humanely as children of the nation. If they continue to persevere, they will face the music as recommended by the Heads of State”, underlined the President of the Republic of Burundi.
The Heads of State also decided to engage the two countries that were not present in the meeting, Tanzania and South Sudan. Tanzania also borders the DRC and in the recruitment process of those armed groups, they also look for young Tanzanians, hence the whole region must be involved in this process, President Ndayishimiye underlined.
The meeting of Heads of State held in Nairobi, Kenya on April 21 was very important because it resulted in decisions that will allow the region to be peaceful like other regions of the world, Burundi Head of the State Evariste Ndayishimiye concluded.