A Peace Rally was organized this Sunday 21 September in Kinshasa by MONUSCO with the help of the DRC Civil Society Consultation Framework to mark the International Peace Day. Three groups from different sites heading for the same destination Carrefour des Evolués carried torches of peace.

At the Place des Evolués, participants were treated to very excellent musical performance given by MONUSCO choir and Kenge folk music. Speeches were respectively delivered by the deputy head of the civil society consultation framework who declared: No lasting development can be envisaged without peace; the head of MONUSCO/Kinshasa outreach unit, Alexandre Essome who read the UN Secretary-General’s message for the occasion, highlighting: “Peace is a long walk we should cover gradually and the Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister who urged everyone to now turn their eyes to the future.

Then a tree of peace was planted, candles were lit by children and pigeons released as a symbol of peace. Started at 10 a.m., the ceremony ended at 13h20’.