Ban to visit African Great Lakes Region

UNITED NATIONS - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, together with Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank, will visit the Great Lakes Region of Africa this week, with the purpose of promoting the implementation of a crucial peace accord, a spokesperson told reporters here Monday.

Eduardo del Buey, Ban's deputy spokesperson, said at the daily briefing held here that Ban and Kim would visit three nations in the Great Lakes Region of Africa -- the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Uganda -- after the UN Secretary General finishing his visit to Mozambique Wednesday.

Mary Robinson, the Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa, will join Ban and Kim in the visit.

The goal of the multiparty visit "is to support the implementation of the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the region," he said.

The Framework was originally signed in Addis Ababa, the national capital of Ethiopia, on February 24 by 11 African nations and four international organizations, known as the 11+4. The agreement aims to end the cycles of conflict and crisis in eastern DRC and to build peace in the long-troubled region.

According to del Buey, Ban will meet with government officials from DRC, Rwanda and Uganda during the visit, which will end on Friday.

Ban will also travel to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on his own after concluding the visit to the African Great Lakes Region to participate in an African Union Summit to mark the 50th Anniversary of the formation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), where Ban "will also hold meetings on the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the region," said del Buey.

Ban will leave Addis Ababa for New York on May 26.