NAIROBI, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday is hosting regional leaders for the third summit aimed at bringing peace to the troubled eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Kenyatta's office said the third East African Community (EAC) Heads of State conclave on an inter-Congolese dialogue of the Nairobi process on the peace and security situation in Eastern DRC is being attended by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye, Salva Kiir Mayardit, president of South Sudan, and President Felix Tshisekedi of DRC.
The presidency said Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan is represented at the meeting by the country's ambassador to Kenya, High Commissioner John Stephen Simbachawene.
"The meeting is aimed at accelerating ongoing regional efforts to attain sustainable peace and security in Eastern DR Congo," Kenyatta's office said in a brief statement issued in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.
Kenyatta is hosting the high-level meeting in his capacity as the co-convenor of the peace process and chairperson of the EAC bloc which comprises Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, South Sudan and DRC.
The latest meeting comes as heavy fighting revives decades-old animosities between DRC and Rwanda, with the mineral-rich DRC struggling to contain several armed groups in the east of the nation. ■