With its headquarters in Gisenyi town, the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries (CEPGL) is a sub-regional organisation with multiple vocations created by the signing of the Gisenyi agreement on September 20 1976.

CEPGL has three member states which include Rwanda, Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo and its purpose is to promote regional economic cooperation and integration.

The sub-regional bloc which comprises institutions shared by the three states whose major aim is to foster security, economic integration and facilitate the movement of goods and people, was formed by the presidents of the three members states in 1976 in accordance with the spirit of various agreements such as that signed at Kinshasa on 29 August1966, the Goma Declaration which was signed on 20 March 1967, the resolutions signed at Bujumbura on 12 June 1969 and 12 June 1974, and the solemn declaration signed at Bukavu on 3 May 1975.

All the agreements were inspired by the historical, geographical and cultural links between the three states of Rwanda, Burundi and DRC which was Zaire at the time.

Sharing similar development challenges, their common interests and their common aspirations for peace, security and progress, the three states in 1976 resolved to consolidate and increase co-operation and trade, and to join forces in economic, cultural and social development endeavours, through forming the Economic Community of Great Lakes Countries CEPGL.

The formation of CEPGL was also guided by three countries’ common desire to increase understanding between their peoples and co-operation between their stateP>Continuous civil war in among CEPGL member countries created tension and suspicion among them; the sub-regional bloc thus collapsed.

For more than a decade, the Great Lakes countries have been embroiled in internal and cross-border warfare.

Burundi one of the member states of CEPGL is emerging from a civil war that broke out in 1993 after the military assassination of the country’s first democratically elected president. The conflict has been a menace to the country’s development and has claimed about 300,000 lives.

An estimated 1000,000 Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered during Rwanda’s 1994 genocide and the Hutu extremists responsible for the mass murder who fled into the Democratic Republic of Congo have for a decade created strife between the three CEPGL member countries.

A number of brutal rebel groups operating in DRC have caused havoc in that country throughout the years and have also crossed over into Burundi to destabilize peace among Congolese refugees living in Burundi.

Their brutal actions caused mistrust and misunderstanding thus breaking the original cooperation and the unity of CEPGL.

The mistrust resulted into brutal acts such as that done to Rwandans by Congolese soldiers in the Congo’s town of Goma where innocent Rwandans were last year arrested tortured and kept in safe houses allegedly accused of supporting Nkunda

Rebirth
The continuous need and desire by the three countries to restore peace in the region however resulted into the recent re-launching of the bloc by the foreign ministers from the three countries in a meeting that took place in Burundi’s capital Bujumbura.

According to Rwandan presidential special envoy to the Great Lakes Region, Richard Sezibera, the re-birth of the Economic Community for the Great Lakes Region, CEPGL, was an important step for the three countries that were in open conflict barely a few years ago.

Sezibera says it will have programmes in several priority areas such as peace, security and good governance, agriculture, energy, infrastructure, education and research, and investments.

"CEPGL will unite us as members of the block to talk about cooperating in alleviating poverty and encouraging development of the three countries,” he said.

"It is an important step, not only for the three countries but hopefully, if we can get the CEPGL to work well, then it will be a model for the rest of the countries in Africa that are emerging from conflict.”

Sezibera explained that despite the chaos that characterised the three member states in the near past, the three countries had managed to continue some programmes set up under the old bloc, including an energy program that sees Rwanda getting power from DRC and a common travel document for the Great Lakes region.

According to the current executive secretary of the CEPGL, Gabriel Toyi, Belgium and the European Union supported the re-launch and contributed resources to the community.

CEPGL has three major institutions: the Economic and Development Bank of the Great Lakes countries, headquartered in DRC, the Energy of Great Lakes, also based in DRC, and the Institute of Agricultural Research and Zoology, located in Burundi.

Toyi says that the organisation is doing everything possible to ensure there is peace and security in its member states of Rwanda, Burundi and DRC.

Putting down arms
While concluding a recent two days seminar in Gisenyi town that brought together four CEPGL representatives from each of the three member countries to discuss on the way forward for various commissions which were design to uphold  peace in the Great Lakes region , CEPGL officer in charge of peace, security, democracy and good governance, Epimaki Nsanzurwanda, said the major ways to improve security in the three countries was through cooperation between the three governments in the demobilisation process.

"This is our second meeting to discuss on the new peace commissions in CEPGL. We put down various commissions that will be responsible for bringing about peace in the three CEPGL member states through organizing dialogue between the armed forces and the governments involved.

We believe the current rebel activities in some of the states can be resolved on a round table rather than the use of weapons. That’s why we meet to design the way forward for these commission in achieving our goals.”

He said the created commissions include Demobilisation and Integration Commission, Peace and Security commission, as well as the Commission in charge of Migration
Nsanzurwanda says in a bid to restore peace and security the commissions will play a role in bringing the armed forces in Burundi and DRC and the two governments to a round table to resolve their differences.

He said that dialogue can lead to demobilisation of the armed forces such as FDRL in DRC and the Burundian National Liberation Forces (FNL) convincing them back to their respective countries to participate in developmental activities thus creating hope for peace and harmony among the three sister countries.

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