NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 31 – Several regional leaders have arrived in Nairobi ahead of the Joint East African Community (EAC)–Southern African Development Community (SADC) Co-Chairs’ Meeting on Friday.
The meeting, co-chaired by President William Ruto (EAC Chair) and President Emmerson Mnangagwa (SADC Chair), will review the fragile peace process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The Nairobi session will bring together regional mediators and key stakeholders for a briefing session with the Panel of Facilitators, who are steering peace talks for the war-torn eastern DRC.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday confirmed the arrival of former Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi, former Ethiopian President Sahle-Work Zewde, and African Union Commission Chairperson Mahamoud Ali Youssouf.
The meeting seeks to align EAC and SADC-led peace initiatives, reinforce regional coordination, and accelerate political dialogue to end the conflict in North and South Kivu provinces, where armed groups have continued to destabilize communities despite previous military and diplomatic interventions.
The Nairobi meeting follows a March 2025 Joint EAC-SADC Summit, where leaders appointed an expanded panel of facilitators to replace Angola’s Luanda Process after its formal withdrawal as a mediator.
New mediators
The new panel includes Sahle-Work Zewde, Catherine Samba-Panza (Central African Republic), former Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta (Kenya), Olusegun Obasanjo (Nigeria), and Kgalema Motlanthe (South Africa).
At that March summit, leaders emphasized the need for a political solution rather than a purely military approach.
“If you want the war to end, you end the injustice, you end political problems for not only your people, but for others, including neighbours,” Rwandan President Paul Kagame said at the time.
The meeting also endorsed outcomes from a Harare ministerial session, which laid out a road map with short, medium, and long-term actions to stabilize the mineral-rich eastern DRC.
Eastern DRC has long been gripped by cycles of violence driven by armed groups, resource conflicts, and cross-border tensions.
In early 2025, M23 rebels captured Goma (North Kivu’s capital) and later Bukavu (South Kivu’s capital), sparking fears of further escalation.
Kenya has been instrumental in these mediation efforts, hosting previous Nairobi Peace Talks that brought together Congolese authorities, armed group representatives, and regional stakeholders under the EAC-led framework.
The Nairobi session will assess progress, strengthen collaboration between EAC and SADC, and set clear timelines for next steps in the mediation process.
