Zuma wants Burundi election delayed
PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma attended the extraordinary summit of the International Conference of the Great Lakes in Luanda this week, which focused on the security and humanitarian situation in Burundi, the CAR, the DRC and South Sudan.
With regards to the attempted coup in Burundi last week, Zuma said: “The summit strongly condemned the coup and agreed that elections should be postponed indefinitely until there’s stability, which would allow the elections to be free and fair.”
Zuma also noted that a delegation of heads of state from Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and Tanzania would visit Burundi soon to evaluate the situation on the ground.
The summit emphasised that the government of Burundi should reassure the fearful in its population and encourage those who have fled to return.
The summit took a controversial decision to label all the rebel groups in South Sudan as “negative forces”.
Regional experts have cautioned that calling the opponents of South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir negative forces could create problems in the future, and discredit the notion of negative forces.
The idea that all armed political opponents could be labelled negative forces creates a precedent which may be used by other governments seeking to discredit their detractors.
The summit also called on the Republic of Sudan to suspend any support it is giving to negative forces in South Sudan.
Regarding the peace process in South Sudan, the summit encouraged the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad) mediation team to table the Peace Agreement and conclude it now that 90 percent of the differences between the sides have been bridged. The summit also made a point of noting that while the troika countries of Norway, the US and the UK should continue their supporting role in mediation efforts in South Sudan, they should not directly participate.
With regards to the security situation in the DRC, the summit encouraged the DRC armed forces to continue their military offensive against the FDLR and attempt to neutralise its command structures.
On the Central African Republic, it was deemed necessary for a special summit to be called on the security situation with the Economic Community of Central African States (Eccas).
The country is in need of a professional defence force to control its territory and the summit felt that the UN Security Council should be pressured to lift the arms embargo.
The summit discussed the challenge of terrorism in the region, and noted the documented nexus between alShabaab, al-Qaeda and the ADF (Allied Democratic Forces).
The ADF is one of the oldest, but least-known armed groups in the eastern DRC and is the only one in the area to be considered an Islamist terrorist group.
The group initially fought against the Ugandan government of Yoweri Museveni. The ADF has not presented the same destabilising threat as the M23, but has stood its ground against the DRC army since 2010.
The ADF has transformed from a Congolese-Ugandan problem into one with regional dimensions.
With the growing collaboration between extremist Islamist groups on the continent, and their increased funding from patrons in the Middle East, this presents a rising challenge – even to the Great Lakes region.