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President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has called on Ghana and the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC to strengthen their bilateral relations, particularly in the areas of security and trade.
He said the long-lasting relations between the two countries must be improved upon.
“We know that the relations between us [Ghana and DRC] go way back to Congolese independence. The first serious foreign policy initiative of Ghana had to do with the dispatch of Ghanaian troops by President Nkrumah to assist the then Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, under the UN peace keeping mandate and ever since then, Ghana has become a peacekeeping country sending troops.
“So, these are strong relations, and we think that the time has come to enhance and build those relations even stronger than they have been in the past. We are very happy to have you here,” President Akufo-Addo added.
The president made the call when he received the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, at the Jubilee House, Thursday, October 20, 2022, as part of his two-day official state visit to Ghana.
President Akufo-Addo subsequently hosted President Tshisekedi and his delegation to a state lunch at the banquet hall of Jubilee House.
Deliberating the security situation on the African continent, President Akufo-Addo noted that he knows that there are matters of common interests in terms of security both in Ghana and in DRC.
“We have a lot of security issues in West Africa which I am sure you are fully abreast with. The jihadist menace which we have here coming from the Sahel which is next door to us in Burkina Faso to the north of our country, is a major concern for us.
“In the same way, you have these same kinds of people in the Central part of the continent which is also a problem for you. I think that that provides us an opportunity to be able to have some clear ideas of how we can all work together to rid our continent of this [Jihadist and Terrorists activities] menace” the President further pointed out.
President of the DRC, Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, in his remarks noted that the volatile security situation in his country is largely due to the support being given to rebels fighting his country by neighboring Rwanda.
To this end, President Tshisekedi, called on President Akufo-Addo and for that matter, Ghana, to use its seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to advocate for sanctions to be preferred against Rwanda in order to stop them from supporting the non-state actors disturbing the peace of DRC.
He also pushed for President Akufo-Addo, to use Ghana’s UNSC seat to press the UN to lift the arms purchase embargo on the DRC to allow them to buy ammunition to defend themselves as a sovereign country.
