Millions of people died of violence, disease or starvation in the Congo Wars of 1996-1997 and 1998-2003 – a conflict that tangled countries across East and Central Africa.
The Kinshasa summit, the 10th in the series, brought together the presidents of the DRC, South Africa, Uganda, Angola, the Republic of Congo, Burundi and the Central African Republic, said a diplomat.

The summit was expected to express concern over logistical and other support to armed groups that remain active in the region.
He would “take note” of joint DRC-Uganda operations against the most notorious group, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), the diplomat said.
“The Regional Monitoring Mechanism of the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework is a structure formed with the determination to end the cycles of conflict and violence that had characterized the Great Lakes region of Africa. There is no security issue that we cannot defeat in Africa,” President Museveni tweeted on Thursday.

The historic operation was launched in the border area at the end of last November, sparked by a series of massacres in eastern DRC and bomb attacks in the Ugandan capital Kampala.
The summit would also welcome the improvement in relations between Rwanda and Uganda and between Rwanda and Burundi after a long period of tension.
The 2013 agreement was eventually signed by 11 countries in total, including Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia.
The next summit will be hosted in 2023 by Burundi.