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Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo said in Johannesburg on Wednesday that he could forsee a role for Nigerian peacekeeping troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as part of a collaborative peace initiative with South Africa.
Obasanjo, in South Africa to attend the inauguration of President Thabo Mbeki, told a news conference that “under the right auspices and the right conditions,” a Nigerian peacekeeping force could be dispatched to DRC.
“We would like to see a situation where we can help a country like the Congo to help itself and where troops from other countries can be withdrawn. We can help to achieve this,” he said.
Obasanjo, who was a senior officer in Nigeria’s first UN peacekeeping mission to the Congo in the early 1960s, added: “Congo has a rebellion on its hands and African countries are sending troops in on opposite sides. That’s unfortunate and not helping things.”
Outlining a new joint approach with South Africa to conflict resolution on the continent, Obasanjo said: “With the conflicts on-going in Africa today, unless we really cooperate there is no way we can see an end to most of them.
“Our two countries can be instruments of assistance and a vanguard of hope for the management and resolution of conflicts,” he added.
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