Top UN peacekeeping official to travel to Great Lakes region

The United Nations’s senior peacekeeping official will travel to the Great Lakes region of Africa next week for a series of meetings aimed at advancing the peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a UN spokesperson announced today.

The Under Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, will travel first to the DRC capital, Kinshasa, to hold meetings with the country's leadership, spokesperson Marie Okabe said.

He will also visit Kindu, Goma, Mbandaka and Kisangani in the DRC, before travelling to Sun City in South Africa for talks with key players of the Inter-Congolese Dialogue in advance of its opening set for 25 February. Meetings are also scheduled in Uganda, Rwanda and Angola.

Meanwhile, the newly-appointed UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the DRC, Iulia Motoc, is expected to arrive in that country tomorrow, on her first visit since her appointment last November.