Weekly Peace Report

Taking a look at peace events across the globe.

The leaders of the USA and North Korea met in Hanoi, Vietnam, for their much anticipated summit yesterday. Although the meeting was monumental, the way forward was still quite murky, and very he-said he-said.

President Donald Trump is reported to have said that North Korean Leader Kim Jung-Un’s only focus in the meeting was the lifting of all the sanctions on North Korea. On the other hand, North Korea’s foreign minister, Ri Yong-ho, said they had only asked for a partial lifting of sanctions. President Trump said the US could not fulfill that wish without full denuclearisation taking place first. Minister Ri said North Korea was prepared to stop nuclear and long-range rocket testing indefinitely.
We hope to see fruitful negotiations and progress towards peace in the near future.

Former NBA star, actor, and Goodwill Ambassador to North Korea, Dennis Rodman, shares this sentiment. He wrote a hopeful letter to President Trump on the eve of the summit saying the president was on the cusp of a big, beautiful deal, one that could secure him a Nobel Peace Prize. In his letter Rodman, who is also has a long-standing friendship with Chairman Kim, expressed a wish to meet President Trump after the summit to discuss methods of moving forward to achieve peace on the Korean peninsula.

Moving along to Africa:
New president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, recently visited Namibia to garner peacekeeping support for his country. He commended Namibia in their role in the Southern Africa Development Community and the restoration of sustainable peace in Congo. With Namibian President, Hage Geingob, by his side, President Tshisekedi held a media briefing in which he discussed peace and security among other issues.

South Africa has called for the United Nations Security Council to work and in hand with the African Union to achieve their goal of a gun free Africa by 2020. Deputy director-general for global governance and continental agenda of the department of international relations and cooperation, Mxolisi Nkosi, said SA believes that if Africa was war-free and at peace with it all plans for a peaceful, developed continent can be achieved.

Actually last year Lesotho and eSwatini became the first African countries to sign their support for the Declaration of Peace and Cessation of War, the DPCW, which is also a peace campaign that is working to cease all wars.