Namibia will next week host an emergency summit of the security organ of the Southern African Development Community at which the political and security situation in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho and Mozambique will be under the spotlight.
In a statement, Namibia’s Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation said the SADC Extraordinary Organ Troika Summit would be chaired by President Hage Geingob in Windhoek on November 30.
Geingob currently chairs the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation, a body managed on a troika basis that is tasked with resolving political and security issues in the 16-member regional bloc. Other members of the SADC Organ are South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema.
The summit would also be attended by the heads of state and government of the DRC, Eswatini, Lesotho and Mozambique – the four SADC member states that are currently experiencing political and security turmoil.
The leaders’ summit would be preceded by the Extraordinary Meeting of the Ministerial Committee of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation on the morning of November 30 as well as a meeting of senior officials on November 29.
“The meetings will discuss, amongst others, the political and security situation in the region, and strengthening democratic processes and the rule of law in the region,” the ministry said.
The eastern DRC and northern Mozambique are have been battling insurgence by armed group for the past few years, while Lesotho is hoping for an end to its long-running political instability that has the country hold four elections between 2012 and 2022.
Eswatini has since 2021 been on a knife’s edge amid violent protests by pro-democracy activists demanding political reforms in Africa’s remaining absolute monarch.
JN/APA