Angolan head of States João Lourenço analysed the political and military instability in the Great Lakes region during an audience he granted to the special envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for that region, Huang Xia, on Friday.
Speaking to journalists, after the meeting, the Chinese diplomat described the situation in the Great Lakes region as “very serious”.
“The situation is very serious, so it is up to us to join-up thinking. And I have come to speak to the Angolan President on his expectation around the Saturday Summit,” he said.
Huang Xia has been in Angola to take part in the Extraordinary Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) scheduled for Saturday (03) in Luanda, under the chairmanship of Joao Lourenço.
The UN senior official defended combined effort involving partners in the search for peace, stability and security in the region, starting with the leaders of the organisation’s member States.
“We have to work more and more towards objectives that can bring solutions to the latent problems in the region at the moment,” he stressed.
ICGLR was created in 1994, after the political and military conflicts that marked the Great Lakes Region in the early 1990s.
The institution brings together Angola, Burundi, the Central African and Democratic Republics of Congo, as well as Congo, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia.
Envoy from Sudan
President Lourenço discussed the internal conflict in Sudan with Daffa Alla Elhag Ali Osman, Special Envoy of the President of the Sovereign Council of Transition, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan.
After the meeting, held at the Presidential Palace, the Sudanese envoy, who is in Luanda to participate in the Extraordinary Summit of the ICGLR, did not speak to journalists.
Conflict
Sudan is currently an unstable country in economic and political terms, with frequent internal conflicts.
The latest clashes in Sudan began on 15 April, when paramilitary forces tried to seize power and came face to face with the army.
Over four hundred people are reported dead and an undisclosed number of people fled the country
Source: Angola Press News Agency (APNA)