What's In Blue

Latest post: Mon 7 Oct 2024

Insights on the work of the UN Security Council

Great Lakes Region: Briefing and Consultations

Tomorrow morning (8 October), the Security Council will hold a briefing and consultations on the Great Lakes region. Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Great Lakes Region Huang Xia will brief on the Secretary-General’s latest semi-annual report on the implementation of the 2013 Peace, Security, and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the region (PSC-F), which was published on 30 September and covers the period from 16 March to 15 September. A civil society representative will also brief the Council. Several regional countries may participate in tomorrow’s meeting under rule 37 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure.

The security situation in eastern DRC is an expected focus of Xia’s briefing. Fighting continues between the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) and the Mouvement du 23 Mars (M23) rebel group in the North Kivu province, despite a 30 July ceasefire signed between the DRC and Rwanda under the Angola-facilitated Luanda process. (For more information, see our 27 September What’s in Blue story.) Xia may also refer to ongoing regional tensions, including the mutual recriminations between the DRC and Rwanda over alleged support for their proxies in the conflict. The DRC accuses Rwanda of supporting the M23, while Rwanda blames the DRC of supporting the Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda (FDLR), an ethnic Hutu armed group active in eastern DRC that was implicated in the 1994 genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda. The Group of Experts assisting the 1533 DRC Sanctions Committee has corroborated these assertions in its reports.

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