Southern African leaders will this week converge in the Mozambican capital Maputo to strategise on regional integration and other issues, APA learnt here on Sunday.
The Botswana-headquartered Southern African Development Community (SADC) announced that heads of state and government would hold an extraordinary summit on 23 June in Maputo “to discuss issues of regional integration, cooperation and development.”
“Summit will, among the key issues, discuss the regional response and support to the Republic of Mozambique in addressing terrorism, regional food and nutrition security, gender and development, and progress in the regional response to HIV and AIDS and COVID-19 pandemic,” the regional bloc said in a statement.
The meeting is also expected to mark the regional commemoration of the 40th anniversary of SADC with the launch of three publications, including a document chronicling the journey that the regional bloc has travelled since its establishment in April 1980 in Lusaka, Zambia.
Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi is expected to chair the extraordinary summit in his capacity as the current Chairperson of SADC.
The extraordinary summit comes as Mozambique is battling an insurgency in its northern-most region where Islamic State-linked militia have wreaked havoc since October 2017.
It also comes as the region mourns the death of Zambia’s first post-independence president, Kenneth Kaunda, who passed away on June 17.
Kaunda hosted the inaugural meeting of the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC), the forerunner to SADC.
JN/APA