President Sam Nujoma with UN special envoy for the Great Lakes Region, Mr Ibrahim Fall (left) at State House on Tuesday, 25 March 2003. Photo: Brigitte Weidlich

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An international conference to discuss the peace process of the Democratic Republic of Congo will be held later this year. This message was brought to President Sam Nujoma on Tuesday by the special envoy for the Great Lakes Region of UN Secretary General, Kofi Anan, Mr Ibrahim Fall, who also briefed Prime Minster Theo-Ben Gurirab and foreign affairs minister Hidipo Hamutenya on the issue. A special envoy of the African Union, Mr Keli Walubita, accompanied fall. Both are visiting all countries who were formerly involved in the DRC conflict, which started in 1998, and South Africa which hosted several peace conferences with regard to the DRC. President Nujoma told the UN special envoy he welcomed such a conference since Namibia wanted to do all it could to help bring lasting peace to the DRC.

When rebel troops were about to topple the new government of former President Laurent Kabila in August 1999 and called on other SADC countries for help, it was decided during a special SADC meeting that some member countries would send troops there.

Without informing the National Assembly as prescribed by the Namibian constitution, and as rumours said, allegedly without informing his Cabinet, President Nujoma as commander-in-chief of the Namibia Defence Force, ordered NDF troops to the DRC. They mainly secured the city of Kinshasa on the western front together with Angolan troops, while Zimbabwean forces were mainly active in eastern DRC. Namibian soldiers were however also deployed in other parts of the DRC. About 30 NDF troops died in that country. The participation in the DRC war cost Namibia about 100 million N$.