State officials from three countries converged on Angola today as efforts to bring peace to the DRC continued. Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano, South African Foreign Minister Alfred Nzo and Tony Lloyd, envoy of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, arrived on separate missions to enlist the Angolan government’s help in obtaining a ceasefire in the DRC, according to the Associated Press (AP). The six-month-old conflict between the Kinshasa government and the rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD) also took Lloyd to Lusaka and Kinshasa earlier this week. Other stops on his 22-26 February mission include Namibia, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Uganda, according to press reports.
Chissano, for his part, visited Uganda on Monday and, on Tuesday, he travelled to Kinshasa with a message from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on ways to end the DRC conflict, according to Reuters. AFP reported that Zambian President Frederick Chiluba was scheduled to travel to Chad on Wednesday to discuss the war with his Chadian counterpart. Troops from Chad, Angola, Namibia, and Zimbabwe are fighting on the side of the Kinshasa government against the RCD, supported by Uganda and Rwanda.
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