LEADERS OF Ghana and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have decided to deepen existing relations between the two countries, especially in the areas of trade and security.
They believe this would inure to the benefit of their citizens.
This came to light when the President of the DRC, Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo called on President Akufo-Addo as part of his two-day state visit to Ghana.
“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,” President Akufo-Addo recalled.
According to him, “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.”
On the security situation on the African continent, President Akufo-Addo said “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,” he noted with concern.
On his part, President Tshisekedi talked about the volatile security situation in his country, which he attributed to the support being given to rebels fighting his country by neighbouring 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 asked President Akufo-Addo to use Ghana’s UNSC position 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.
BY Charles Takyi-Boadu