Goma, 2 September 2013 – The Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General for the Great Lakes region, Mary Robinson, arrived in Goma, North-Kivu province, on Monday, 2 September 2013. Mrs. Robinson is on a joint regional mission, which she will conduct with other Special Envoys from the African Union, European Union and the United States to back diplomatic peace efforts in eastern D.R. Congo and the Great Lakes region.

Mary Robinson arrived in the administrative town of the North-Kivu province, accompanied by the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in the D.R. Congo, Martin Kobler, and MONUSCO Force Commander, Carlos Alberto dos Santos Cruz. The purpose of her visit, as she put it, was to see for herself the situation prevailing in the province, to voice her solidarity with the population of the North-Kivu province as well as with the victims of the clashes last week between the Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC) backed by MONUSCO and M23 rebels, as well as with Congolese troops and MONUSCO's peacekeepers.

After conferring with MONUSCO's officials, Ms. Robinson met the provincial Governor before visiting Heal Africa and MONUSCO level III hospitals to voice solidarity with civilian victims of last week's clashes. Late in the afternoon, the Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General met civil society organizations, before holding a press conference intended for the local and international Media.

Addressing members of civil society organizations and the medias, she explained why she called on the special envoys of the AU, the EU and the USA to be part of this mission. She said she wanted "to trigger an interest for the international community in lasting peace in the D.R. Congo through the Framework Agreement signed in Addis-Ababa and the UN Security Council's Resolution 2098." Military action, she stressed, would be needed whenever necessary, however, a political process is the real solution to eradicate the root causes of insecurity.

Maïmouna Traoré/MONUSCO