The African Union Peace and Security Council says political will from all parties is key to the effective implementation of the Peace, Security, and Cooperation Framework in the DRC.

The Peace and Security Council discussed the deteriorating situation in eastern DRC ahead of the 36th Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government underway in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The Peace, Security, and Cooperation Framework for the DRC was signed ten years ago to usher in peace, security, stability, and development in the DRC and the Great Lakes Region.

The SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation has resolved to initiate dialogue amongst the member states of different Regional Economic Communities that have deployed forces in the DRC.

The move is one of the outcomes of the two-day Extra-Ordinary Organ Troika Summit of Heads of State and Government, held in Windhoek.

The dialogue among the Regional Economic Communities is being pursued with a view to establishing and implementing mechanisms for the effective coordination of their interventions in the DRC.

Over 500 Swakopmund residents will now be able to own decent housing as the Swakopmund Municipality will embark on a process through which land ownership will be awarded to them.

This is part of the Swakopmund Municipality’s target to decongest 17,000 or more residents from the DRC informal settlement.

The project, which will benefit residents, mainly those living in the town’s informal settlements of DRC Proper and DRC Wagdaar, will commence early this year, according to the town’s Chief Executive Officer, Archie Benjamin, in his new year’s message.

SADC has reiterated its commitment to fighting political instability and the social and economic threats faced by some member states.

This was said by the Chairperson of the SADC Ministerial Committee of the Organ, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, at the meeting of the Ministerial Committee of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defense, and Security Cooperation.

Nandi-Ndaitwah cited as an example the instability in the eastern part of the DRC that has claimed hundreds of lives and displaced thousands.

Another concern is the terrorist attacks in Cabo Delgado Province, Mozambique.

More than a thousand learners at Swakopmund's Festus !Gonteb Primary school will no longer be forced to share one computer among them.

This follows a donation of 80 computers to the school, by a mining company, Basil Read.

At 58 years old, Festus !Gonteb Primary school is one of the oldest public schools in Swakopmund.

It is attended mostly by children from Mondesa and the impoverished DRC informal settlement.

Loide Kasingo, the leader of a delegation of lawmakers in Namibia to the Pan-African Parliament has refused to shed light on a heated incident involving one of its members in a recent session, in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The leader and chief change campaigner of the Landless People's Movement Bernadus Swartbooi was asked to leave a plenary session by security personnel for allegedly using foul language, a few days ago.

President Hage Geingob, the Chairperson of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence, and Security Cooperation, has joined the international community in calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

He also urged armed groups, including M23, to disarm.

President Geingob's call for peace in the DRC follows an upsurge in armed conflict in the north of the central African country, where M23 rebels are accused of running amok and have taken control of two towns in Eastern Kivu Province.