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Zuma returns after holding talks with Kabila

    JOHANNESBURG

    South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma returned home on Tuesday following brief talks in Kinshasa with Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President Joseph Kabila, the UN special envoy in the DRC, Kamel Morjane, and warring factions in the Burundi civil war, PANA reported.

    Although details of the two leaders’ discussions were not disclosed, the aim of the visit was to assist with efforts to get warring rebel groups to join the peace negotiations in Burundi. Zuma also met representatives of the National Committee for the Defence of Democracy (NCDD) and its military wing, Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD) and the National Forces of Liberation (FNL), the report said.

    Kabila’s role in bringing representatives of NCDD and FDD to the negotiation table has been considered crucial to the success of the peace process. The FDD and the FNL are the two main rebel forces clashing with the Burundi government army. Burundi’s civil war broke out in 1993 when Tutsi paratroopers assassinated the country’s first democratically elected Hutu president, Melchior Ndadaye. The conflict has claimed some 200,000 people, mainly civilians, according to the report.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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