The Ministers of signatory States and the Guarantors of the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Great Lakes Region (PSC Framework) met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 28 January 2016, in the margins of the 28th Ordinary Session of the AU Executive Council. Participants included those from Angola, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Representatives of the UN, the AU, ICGLR and SADC participated in the meeting as guarantors of the PSC Framework. The meeting was chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Angola.
The Meeting discussed a number of issues and agreed on, among others, the following:
(i) expressed its full support for the on-going EAC-led dialogue in Burundi, in this regard, encouraged continued efforts at preventative diplomacy and confidence-building;
(ii) welcomed the recent decision of the government of the DRC to resume joint military planning and operations with MONUSCO to neutralise negative forces, including, FDLR, and requested an update at the next meetings of the PSC Framework;
(iii) recommended that ICGLR, in coordination with the Government of the DRC, SADC and the UN, convene a meeting of Ministers of Defence to review progress in the neutralisation of negative forces, notably the FDLR and ADF.
The meeting also agreed on ways to strengthen the governing mechanisms of the PSC Framework as well as the need for signatory states to actively participate in the Private sector Investment Conference, to be held in Kinshasa on 24-25 February 2016.
