President Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé has called for collective efforts to secure peace in the Great lakes Region.
He said that there was an urgent need for increased coordination of peace efforts in the Great Lakes region in order to find lasting compromises in the face of the fragility of the regional and international context.
“We are no longer in the era of repeated diagnoses. We are no longer in the era of declarations, which overlap without always reinforcing each other. The situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in the Great Lakes region compels us to take coherent action,” Gnassingbé said on Saturday.
The Togolese leader noted, “We must demonstrate our ability to coordinate our efforts, assume our responsibilities and maintain a common course, even in a fragile regional environment and in an increasingly fragmented world.”
He explained that peace only has meaning if it is experienced by the people.
“Behind our frameworks, our texts, and our mechanisms, there are women, men, and children; displaced communities deprived of security, healthcare, education, and opportunities. Peace is not measured solely by the signing of agreements or the holding of meetings. It is measured by the restoration of security, access to essential services, and the gradual return of confidence to daily life,” he noted.
The strategic meeting brought together in Lomé prominent African figures including Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, stakeholders and the African Union panel of facilitators composed of former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, Mokgweetsi Masisi of Botswana, and former Presidents Sahle-Work Zewde of Ethiopia and Catherine Samba-Panza of the Central African Republic, and several other actors involved in this peace process.
