African Diplomacy Observer

As scheduled, President Bush met with the DRC President, Joseph Kabila on October 26, 2007. During that meeting, held in the White House’s Oval Office, Mr. Bush congratulated President Kabila for garnering 58 percent of the suffrage during the last presidential elections, he assessed as having been free and fair.

They also talked about challenges ahead such as the need to consolidate the gains of the ongoing peace process that led to the general elections. Among these challenges remain the economic development of the DRC, the security and stability of the country that involve, among other, the reform of the DRC security sector. In that regard, President Kabila emphasized the need for a continued support by the United States in order to achieve these challenges.

The instability in the Eastern part of the country was also addressed; particularly the need to make sure that the government’s reach extends throughout the entire country and that there is stability throughout the country.

Source: White House’s Office of the Press Secretary

British Minister for International Cooperation, Mrs. Shriti Vadera, travelled to the Democratic Republic of Congo on October 4, 2007 for a three-day official visit during which, she was expected to discuss the British Government project to assist the DRC Government in establishing a durable peace and reducing poverty. During this visit, the British Minister was also expected to meet with the Head of States, Joseph Kabila, and the Prime Minister, Antoine Gizenza, the Governor of Kinshasa, André Kimbuta and other members of the Government and of the Parliament.

In the same vein, the Minister was due to meet with members of the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC), the international community and to have talks on the reform of the security sector and on the assistance to the Congolese Government for the implementation of projects aim at improving governance. After her stay in Kinshasa, Mrs. Vadera, was expected to travel on Saturday, 6 October to Lubumbashi to visit mining companies and a project relating to the reform of the justice.

Mrs. Vadera is responsible for the British Government’s efforts to alleviate poverty worldwide. For that purpose, her department benefits from a budget amounting to USD 2,5 million dedicated to support to Africa’s development.

Source: Afriquenligne.fr citing a communiqué from the British Embassy to the DRC.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) intends to play a central role in the Central Africa and Great-Lake sub-regions and to positively impact on their evolutions and development by adopting a more constructive attitude since it has for many years been a destabilising point in the heart of this region or the place of destabilising activities from its neighbourhood. In this respect, as from 1998, the DRC has been the theatre of a regional war opposing some Congolese rebels backed by Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi to the former president Laurent Désiré Kabila militarily supported by Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe - as well as Chad which soon withdrew from the conflict – and who was also helped by exiled soldiers from the ex-Rwandan armed forces (ex-FAR).