Kagame meets AU Peace and Security Council

President Kagame yesterday morning hosted members of the Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union who paid a courtesy call at Village Urugwiro in Kigali. The council has been hosting a weeklong retreat in Kigali to review its working methods as well as consider ways to make the council serve as per its mandate. The PSC is the AU’s standing decision-making body responsible for the maintenance of continental peace and security. The council’s chairman Mull Katende said that, during their weeklong retreat which ends today, they reviewed the working improvements of the council as well as identified gaps limiting performance. Katende, who is also Uganda’s permanent representative to the AU, said that they identified areas facing constraints such as human resources that ought to be improved to enable them to fulfill their mandate. In their meeting with the President, they briefed him on the work of the council as well as aspects that were undergoing review and improvements. “We had interactions on the ongoing African Union reforms among other topics, whereby we also gave in our inputs and contributions to the process,” Katende said following the meeting with President Kagame. “The President reminded us that, as we seek to address issues affecting the continent, we ought to have the right attitude, go ahead with implementation as well as keep the conversation going,” he added. Some of the visiting members of the African Union Peace and Security Council during the meeting in Kigali. Courtesy. Rwanda was in January last year elected to the African Union Peace and Security Council (PSC) as a member, for a period of two years. All the 15 members are elected by the AU Executive Council on a regional basis with three countries from Central Africa; three from Eastern Africa; two from North Africa; three from Southern Africa; and four from West Africa. African foreign ministers in Kigali over AU reforms Meanwhile, President Kagame is tomorrow expected to host African foreign affairs ministers to discuss implementation of African Union reforms. During the 27th African Union Summit held in Kigali, member states of the AU entrusted President Kagame to lead the African Union reforms to enable the Union to better meet its mission’s goal and serve African citizens. The President put together a team of eminent persons which led the reforms process. The proposed reforms were adopted by heads of state during the African Union summit held in January in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The visiting foreign ministers and African Ambassadors accredited to the AU will discuss the way forward in the implementation of these reforms during tomorrow’s meeting, according to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Kagame meets AU Peace and Security Council