The heads of the defense forces of the SamiRDC contributing countries and the chiefs of general staff of the FARDC convened in Goma on Thursday.
On their arrival, they were welcomed by Lieutenant General Fall Sikabwe, coordinator of Nour Kivu and Kivu operations, Major General Peter Chirimwami, acting military governor of North Kivu, as well as Major General Monwabisi Dyakopu, Commander of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Mission.
These senior officials from the armies of South Africa, Burundi, Malawi, Tanzania and the DRC are meeting to develop strategies to strengthen operations against the M23.
This meeting follows other meetings which took place a few days ago.
On February 25, on the sidelines of the funeral of Namibian President Hage Geingob in Windhoek, Namibia, President Félix Tshisekedi participated in a meeting of SADC contributing countries operating in eastern DRC. This meeting expanded to Burundi.
In addition to the Head of State Félix Tshisekedi, his counterparts Lazarus Chakwera from Malawi, Cyril Ramaphosa from South Africa and Évariste Ndayishimiye from Burundi also took part in the meeting, alongside Congolese officials, members of the government, the office of the president and the army.
A week earlier, Presidents Félix Tshisekedi of the DRC, Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa and Évariste Ndayishimiye of Burundi met on February 18 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to discuss the deployment of SADC troops.
