African leaders meeting in the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam inked a United Nations-backed agreement on Saturday pledging to find peaceful solutions to conflicts in Central Africa’s Great Lakes region.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, speaking at the gathering of heads of state from 11 countries including Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), said it has taken 10 years to get all the leaders around the talks table.
Saturday’s agreement pledged to bring an end to war, genocide, hunger and disease in the region, plagued by conflict since about 800 000 people were killed in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. About three million people were killed in the 1998-2003 war in the DRC alone.
Annan had on Friday admitted that UN peacekeepers and civilians committed ”sexual exploitation and abuse” while serving in the UN mission in the DRC. Allegations of abuse in refugee camps surfaced in the spring and was confirmed following a UN probe.
The UN head said there is ”clear evidence” that ”gross misconduct” took place.
”This is a shameful thing for the United Nations to have to say, and I am absolutely outraged by it.” — Sapa-DPA