Regional MPs discuss security in Great Lakes region

Parliamentary leaders meeting in Kigali for a two-day 14th Ordinary Session of the Executive Committee of the Forum of Parliaments in member states of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (FP-ICGLR) have made regional security and political situation a focus of their discussions. At the sessions which kicked off yesterday at the Rwandan Parliament, members of the committee gave presentations and debated on the security and political situation in ICGLR member countries, especially focusing on Burundi, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, and South Soudan. “There is some instability in a few member countries which we have to analyse. If you don’t respond to this instability it can spread to other regional countries,” said Pedro Sebastião, president of the Executive Committee of FP-ICGLR and a Member of the National Assembly of Angola. At the ongoing meeting in Kigali, participants are mainly representatives of parliaments in twelve member countries of the ICGLR which include Burundi, Rwanda, DR Congo, Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, South Soudan, Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, and Angola. Among other items on the agenda, the legislators will review reports of FP-ICGLR’s parliamentary missions to Burundi, South Soudan and the Central African Republic ,as well as those of electoral observation missions conducted in Uganda, Central African Republic, and Congo-Brazzaville. The meeting’s recommendations will be submitted to all parliaments in ICGLR member countries through the 7th Ordinary Session of the Plenary Assembly of the FP-ICGLR to be held in Khartoum, Soudan, in December 2016. The president of the Rwandan Senate, Bernard Makuza, called upon legislators in member states of the ICGLR to focus on discussions that are helpful for preventing conflicts in the region, explaining that they need to initiate concrete actions that promote peace and security. “The forum needs to be determined to make a difference and to become more relevant. Our region deserves stability and sustainable development for our people,” Makuza said. Under the FP-ICGLR, which remains the main inter-parliamentary organisation of African Parliaments in the Africa Great Lakes Region, members discuss regional security and the prevention and management of conflicts among member countries. The ongoing session of the forum’s executive committee in Kigali has also attracted delegates from the Association of European Parliamentarians for Africa (AWEPA), a group of European legislators involved in African-European parliamentary dialogue. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Regional MPs discuss security in Great Lakes region