By Godfrey Olukya 25-4-2013
The special envoy of the UN secretary-general for the great lakes region of Africa, Mary Robinson, will make her first visit to the region in this new capacity from 29 April to 5 May 2013.
She will visit South Africa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and South Africa, before concluding her mission at the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The Special Envoy looks forward to initiating discussions with leaders and officials from key countries that recently signed the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the region on how to translate this encouraging new agreement into tangible actions and cooperation to end the recurrent cycles of crisis and suffering in the eastern Democratic republic of Congo.
She will also meet with regional and sub-regional organizations and envoys working on issues surrounding the Great Lakes, representatives of NGOs, including women’s organizations; and UN and international partners.
Among the highlights of the special envoy’s travel are, 29-30 April in democratic republic of Congo where she will be in meetings meeting in Kinshasa with President Joseph Kabila and Foreign Minister Raymond Tshibanda, leadership of the UN peacekeeping mission in the country (MONUSCO) and civil society international community. She will visit to Goma on 30 April where she will meet with local authorities, representatives of NGOs, and UN peacekeeping and humanitarian partners.
On 1st May she will be in Rwanda where she will meet with officials including foreign minister Louise Mushikiwabo, NGOs, international community and the UN
country team.
In Uganda she will be there on 2nd May to meet president Yoweri Museveni and Crispus Kiyonga, minister of defense and facilitator of the Congo peace talks being held in Kampala.
She will meet senior South African government officials on 3rd May in Pretoria before proceeding to Ethiopia om May 4th to meet Dlamini Zuma, Chairperson of the African Union Commission.
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