BUJUMBURA, March 28th (ABP) –The President of the Republic of Burundi, Evariste Ndayishimiye, took part, on Monday 24 March 2025, in the second joint meeting of the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), held by videoconference.
The joint Summit of Heads of State and Government of the EAC and SADC was held to examine the report of the joint ministerial meeting on the security situation in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to a press release issued on the fringes of the said Summit and published on the websites of the two communities (https://www.eac.int and https://ww.sadc.int ) in English.
The joint Summit was co-chaired by the President of the EAC and President of the Republic of Kenya, William Samoei Ruto, and the President of the SADC and President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, it was noted.
The Heads of State and government who took part in that joint summit were Evariste Ndayishimiye, President of the Republic of Burundi; William Samoei Ruto, President of the Republic of Kenya; Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, President of the Republic of Zimbabwe; Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, President of the Democratic Republic of Congo; Andry Rajoelina, President of the Republic of Madagascar; Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, President of the Republic of Malawi; Samia Suluhu Hassan, President of the Republic of Tanzania; and Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa, President of the Republic of South Africa.
Other Heads of State and government who took part in that joint summit, held by videoconference, were Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda; Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, President of the Republic of Uganda; Hakainde Hichilema, President of the Republic of Zambia; and Hamza Abdi Barre, Prime Minister of the Republic of Somalia, who represented Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud, President of the Federal Republic of Somalia; Ambassador Téte António, Minister of External Relations of the Republic of Angola, who represented João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço, President of the Republic of Angola; and the Honourable Deng Alor Kuol, Minister of East African Community Affairs, who represented Salva Kiir Mayardit, President of the Republic of South Sudan.
The communiqué stated that the Executive Secretary of SADC and the Secretary General of the EAC had participated in the Joint Summit.
At the outset, the Joint Summit recalled the decisions taken at the first meeting of the EAC-SADC Joint Summit held on 8 February 2025 in Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania), on the situation prevailing in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo; the resolutions of the 1261st meeting of the Summit of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union (AU) held on 14 February 2025 and Resolution 2773 of the United Nations Security Council held on 21 February 2025.
All those decisions underline the need for concerted efforts to remedy the deteriorating security situation in the east of the DRC.
The Joint Summit adopted the report on the outcome of the joint meeting of EAC and SADC ministers held on 17 March 2025 in Harare, Zimbabwe, including the report of the joint meeting of the Chiefs of Defence Staff, the roadmap detailing the measures to be implemented in the short, medium and long term with a view to establishing lasting peace and security in the eastern DRC, and urged all the parties concerned to implement those measures as soon as possible.
The Joint Summit therefore ordered the implementation of the recommendations set out in the report and the roadmap.
Taking into account the criteria of gender, regional and linguistic representation, the Joint Summit appointed certain personalities as members of the Group of Facilitators. Those are the former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo; the former President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta; the former President of South Africa, Kgalema Motlanthe; the former President of the Central African Republic, Catherine Samba Panza; and the former President of Ethiopia, Sahle-Work Zewde.
To that end, the Joint Summit instructed the EAC and SADC Secretariats to notify the facilitators of their appointment by consensus and to communicate the conclusions of the Summit to the African Union and the United Nations (UN) Council. It instructed the co-chairs to organize a briefing for the Group of Facilitators within seven days. That briefing should be carried out jointly by SADC, the EAC and the AU, it was stressed.
Finally, the Joint Summit thanked the EAC and SADC Presidents for their joint leadership of the Joint Summit and commended their leadership in the initiatives undertaken to restore lasting peace and security in Eastern DRC and the region as a whole. He also thanked the EAC and SADC Secretariats for their valuable contributions to the preparation of the Summit.