Lakes

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed the entry into force of the Pact on Security, Stability and Development in the Great Lakes Region after its ratification by eight African countries.

The Security Council today commended the recent agreement of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda to work together against threats to peace and stability in the region, calling it “an important milestone towards the definitive settlement of the problem of illegal armed groups” operating in the turbulent far east of the DRC.

The top United Nations human rights official today said that she was appalled by the level of sexual and gender-based violence she found in Africa’s Great Lakes region, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Burundi.

The 11 countries of Africa’s Great Lakes region, which has been mired in deadly conflict for the past decade, must take control of implementing an historic pact that could pave the way for peace and prosperity, the top United Nations envoy to the region said today.

The United Nations refugee agency plans to close three camps in Tanzania by the middle of this year, driven by dwindling numbers of refugees as the security situation across Africa’s Great Lakes region continues to improve.

Although the long-standing refugee crisis in the Great Lakes region of Africa continued to ease last year with tens of thousands of people criss-crossing borders to get home, serious challenges still remain in what has become a complex two-way traffic, the United Nations says in its latest update.

The Security Council today backed the recently concluded Pact on Security, Stability and Development in the Great Lakes region of Africa, which a United Nations envoy said holds the potential to consolidate gains in a part of the world that has been the scene of numerous deadly conflicts.

Culminating a two-day summit meeting at the United Nations Office at Nairobi, African leaders from eleven countries today signed a Pact on Security, Stability and Development in the Great Lakes region which Secretary-General Kofi Annan has praised for its potential to consolidate peace in a region that has seen some of the world’s deadliest conflicts.

Welcoming a major new treaty that seeks to bring peace to Africa’s troubled Great Lakes region, which has witnessed some of the world’s bloodiest wars, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called on the country’s leaders to focus not only on ending conflict but also on democracy, economic development, regional integration and humanitarian issues.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) António Guterres today called for rich countries to invest in the economic development of Africa’s Great Lakes region to prevent countries emerging from conflict from slipping back into chaos.