Brigadier General Charles Simuyuni Nakeempaa of the Zambian armed forces is the new Commander of Expanded Joint Verification Mechanism Plus (EJM+).
His appointment was approved on Tuesday during the extraordinary meeting of the Committee of Ministers of Defence of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), held in Livingstone in collaboration with the Republic of Zambia.
According to organizers, the meeting, aimed to examine the major security and humanitarian challenges in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and their regional implications.
The meeting also approved a memorandum of understanding between the ICGLR, the DRC government, and the AFC/M23, as parties to the Doha Declaration of Principles.
This memorandum concerns the implementation of the Expanded Joint Verification Mechanism Plus (EJVM+) and the terms of reference for the ceasefire monitoring and verification mechanism by the EJVM+.
The Ministers of the ICGLR Member States Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Congo, DRC, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia discussed the creation of a unified regional response, aligned with the ICGLR Pact on Security, Stability and Development, the Doha Peace Framework Agreement and the Washington Agreements.
DRC’s Defence Minister Guy Kabombo Muadiamvita said that peace can no longer be delayed or made conditional on political calculations, and that regional mechanisms must become credible, operational and dissuasive in order to protect civilian populations and put an end to repeated cycles of violence.
