APA-Pretoria (South Africa) South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa will miss the coronation of King Charles III on Saturday as he will be attending a summit in Burundi to discuss the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Ramaphosa had been invited to witness the coronation of King Charles at Westminster Abbey in London.
“There was an invite (extended to the president), which was declined due to the Burundi commitment,” presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said.
International Relations Minister Naledi Pandor would attend the coronation on behalf of Ramaphosa, he said.
Magwenya said Ramaphosa would travel to Burundi on Friday to attend a two-day peace conference whose main purpose is to bring normalcy to the troubled eastern DRC and the restive Great Lakes region.
The gathering is the 11th High Level Segment of the Regional Oversight Mechanism of the Peace, Security and Cooperation (PSC) Framework for the DRC and the Great Lakes area.
“The PSC framework’s key mandate is to end recurring cycles of devastating conflict in eastern DRC which impact on stability and development in the Great Lakes region,” he said.
The framework aims to address the root causes of the conflict in the eastern DRC and the Great Lakes region.
According to Magwenya, the conference is being held on the back of the “deteriorating political and security situation in the Eastern DRC caused by a resurgence of the M23 rebel movement” – a source of tension between the DRC and Rwanda, its Central African counterpart.
The leaders would deliberate on the recent deployment of East African Community troops and their role in dealing with “negative forces” in the eastern DRC – especially the M23 rebels.
“Since 2023 marks the 10th anniversary of the PSC Framework, the leaders will focus on the revitalisation of the framework and will consider a plan to enable it do this,” Magwenya said.
He added: “And the current crisis caused by the clashes between Sudan Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces will most likely be discussed during the summit as well.”
Signed in 2013, the PSC Framework – also known as the Addis Ababa Agreement – has Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, DRC, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia as signatories to the agreement.
In 2014, Kenya and Sudan became the 12th and 13th signatories of the framework.
NM/jn/APA