![]() ![]() “The UN remains fully engaged, by your side,” he said, welcoming the initiative taken by the Peace and Security Council of the African Union in February to revitalize the Framework. “Peace and development must go hand in hand.” “We must ensure that it becomes a source of prosperity and development, not of conflict, rivalries, and unsustainable exploitation,” he said. ![]() Turning to the region’s bounty of rich natural and cultural resources, he said DRC is home to the world’s second largest rainforest, accounting for 10 percent of global biodiversity. Indeed, for peace to be sustainable, he said the voices of women, young people and displaced persons must be fully heard in all political, security and judicial processes. Within the Framework, boosted efforts must now focus on building a foundation of dialogue among parties to identify sustainable solutions to differences, ending impunity for perpetrators of cross-border crimes, and inclusively advancing peace, he stressed. Reiterating his call to armed groups, he said “ lay down your arms immediately and rejoin the demobilization, disarmament, and reintegration progress.” The Framework, signed in 2013 in Addis Ababa, had “raised many hopes” of ending decades of violence, he said, encouraging redoubled efforts from the signatory countries, African Union, International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). “The current crisis shows that much still remains to be done,” he warned, adding that the ongoing violence is threatening the stability of the entire Great Lakes region. Since the resurgence of the M23 armed group in DRC in 2021, more than 500,000 people have fled the violence, he said, also raising concerns about the current “extremely worrisome” security situation in Ituri province.
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