The Minister of Defence and Veteran Affairs Adolf Mwesige on Monday met with the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Great Lakes Region Huang Xia with whom they discussed various issues pertaining to the UN Strategy for Peace Consolidation, Conflict Resolution and Prevention in the Great Lakes region.
The Great Lakes region has made great strides towards achieving peace, security, and stability in the past two years.
Examples of such progress include the smooth transition of power following the elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in December 2018, the peaceful elections in Burundi in May this year, the ongoing dialogue between the core countries of the region, namely the DRC, Rwanda, Uganda and Rwanda; progress in the repatriation of disarmed combatants in eastern DRC; and renewed interest in economic cooperation and integration between the countries of the region.
Despite these advances which are in line with the implementation of the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the region, many challenges remain, especially the persisting presence of illegal armed forces in eastern DRC, and the lingering mistrust between some countries.
To secure the progress achieved so far, and address the remaining challenges, the United Nations is undertaking a review of its Strategy for Peace Consolidation, Conflict Prevention and Conflict Resolution in the Great Lakes region.
In line with these directives, Huang Xia, the UN Special Envoy for the Great Lakes, has embarked on a series of visits in the region to meet with various actors of society and share views on the issues at hand.
In the meeting with Mwesige, which took place at the Ministry of Defence headquarters in Mbuya, Kampala, Huang also briefed the Minister on the ongoing preparations for the upcoming high-level meeting of the Regional Oversight Mechanism of the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the region.
Huang expressed high appreciation to Uganda towards the contribution of peacekeeping missions that are supported by the United Nations.
Particularly, he hailed the UPDF leadership for the high-level of professionalism exhibited by the forces in peacekeeping missions. He remarked that the Great Lakes Region and Africa at large still face challenges such as the fight against rebel groups like ADF which hinders the efforts by the UPDF troops towards Peacekeeping.
Minister Mwesige told the envoy that under the leadership of President Museveni, Uganda has and will always embrace the Pan African ideology, especially in Peacekeeping and UN Missions whenever called upon.