BuaNews (Tshwane)
Bathandwa Mbola
6 November 2008
Pretoria — South Africa is to host a regional summit to discuss the violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the stalled power-sharing deal in Zimbabwe on Sunday. Leaders from the 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) will hold their extraordinary summit, to be chaired by South African President and Chairperson of the organ, Kgalema Motlanthe.
According to Minister for Foreign Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma high on the agenda of the Extra-Ordinary Summit will be a discussion of the current political situation in the DRC as well as the ongoing facilitation efforts in Zimbabwe.
The power-sharing deal between President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, have stalled over the allocation of key Cabinet ministries. Regional leaders have held two summits over the last three weeks press the rivals into a compromise.
At their last meeting in Harare on 27 October, President Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai agreed only to bring the dispute before an emergency SADC summit.
According to the United Nations (UN), nearly half of Zimbabwe's population needs international food aid. This has been worsened by the country's high inflation rate which is estimated to be at 231 million percent.
In the eastern region of DRC, clashes between rebels and pro-government militia have been continued for weeks, displacing tens of thousands of people. The International Red Cross on Wednesday said it had started distributing 365 tons of food to the displaced people around Kibati, just north of Goma, which is surrounded by rebel forces.
The DRC is witness to the biggest deployment of UN peacekeepers in the world, with a force of 17 000 peacekeepers currently stationed in the country.
Cabinet, in its meeting on Wednesday, expressed "extreme concern" at the recent outbreak of conflict in the DRC as well as the lack of progress in the power-sharing deal.
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