DRC President Laurent-Desire Kabila failed to attend a special summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on the DRC conflict in the Mozambican capital Maputo on Sunday, or to have a delegate attend in his place, news organisations reported on Monday. “Perhaps Kabila was busy with other matters, and perhaps the people who might have represented him were also busy,” Reuters news agency reported Mozambican host President Joachim Chissano as saying. The Maputo summit noted “with concern” the lack of progress in implementing the Lusaka peace agreement signed in August 1999, and Chissano said a new effort would be made to bring together the combatants before the UN Security Council debate on the DRC on 24 January. SADC also repeated its call for the UN to send a full peacekeeping force to the DRC, which it is reluctant to do until a ceasefire holds.
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