The European Union’s special envoy for Africa’s Great Lakes region, Aldo Ajello, was on Tuesday set to begin a tour of central Africa aimed at restoring stability in Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) troubled Ituri region, a statement said.
”Mr Ajello will undertake a mission from June 3 to 12 which will take him to Kigali, Kampala, Kinshasa, Gbadolite (northern DRC) and Goma (east DRC)” where he will have ”a series of political contacts with leaders of the region,” the statement by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said.
Solana will make ”personal contact” in the coming days with the presidents of the DRC, Joseph Kabila, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame and Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni Museveni to discuss the crisis in Ituri.
Hundreds of people were killed in apparently well organised ethnic slaughters in the region last month alone, and some 50 000 people have died in fighting in Ituri since 1999.
The region continues to be riven by unrest despite DRC signing a peace accord in December — which took effect two months ago — to end a four-and-a-half-year war and set up an interim, power-sharing government.
Solana will also hold talks on Ituri with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and with the current president of the African Union, South African leader Thabo Mbeki, the statement said.
Solana has also said that the EU will decide on Wednesday what it can contribute to a UN-led peacekeeping force for Ituri.
”I think that tomorrow we will be able to take a decision,” he told reporters, giving no further details but adding: ”I’m optimistic.”
France is tipped to head the European contribution to the force, helped by countries including Nordic states, after a UN request for troops to help restore calm in the northeastern Ituri region, diplomats have said.
A force of 1 000-2 000 troops is expected to be deployed under a UN mandate to the giant central African country.
The UN Security Council has asked countries to participate in an emergency military operation in the Ituri region. – Sapa-AFP