In a joint Permanent Commission meeting between the Congo-Brazaville and Rwanda, both countries have agreed to work hand in hand to see how refugees in Congo-Brazaville can come home.
This is in a way of applying cessation clause for refugees.
According to Mary Baine the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the meeting, delegation from both countries agreed on how to repatriate refugees in Congo-Brazaville Rwandan refugees.
Early this year, Ministry of Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs (MIDIMAR) delegations visited refugee communities in Malawi and Congo-Brazzaville to assure them of the transparency of the justice system, the success of reconciliation efforts and their right to reclaim the property they left behind.
Following previous campaigns in 2010 alone 12,000 refugees voluntarily returned to Rwanda and it is said that currently there are 70,000 Rwandans living as refugees around the world and those who choose to remain in their host country can do so by following that country’s standard immigration procedures.
The clause, under the UNHCR system, does not allow claims for refugee status after verification by the agency that there are no conditions in the country of origin that qualify for UN protection.
A cessation of refugee status is a legal avenue open to states and the UNHCR as a way of recognising changed circumstances in refugee- producing countries.
Designed to be narrowly interpreted, cessation requires a fundamental and profound change in the country conditions that provoked the need for asylum.
Congo-Brazaville head of state President Denis Sassou-Nguesso arrived in Rwanda for his three-day state visit.
Arriving at 5:30pm, Sassou-Nguesso was received by his counterpart President Paul Kagame in a high decorated calourful event at Kigali International Airport that saw Rwanda’s cultural troop dancing traditional dance and army parade.
President Sassou-Nguesso is scheduled to be hosted for a state banquet on tomorrow.
His visit aims at strengthening both countries bilateral relationships which also follows the last year’s visit of Paul Kagame he had to Congo-Brazaville.
During his visit in Rwanda, President Sassou-Nguesso is also scheduled to tour socio-economic sites in Kigali and the surrounding areas.
The two heads of state are expected to hold a joint press conference on Wednesday at Urugwiro Village before he leaves.
Rwanda and Congo enjoy good and established relations, which were strengthened by the state visit by President Kagame to Brazzaville last November.
The growing relationship between Congo and Rwanda has been further facilitated by the recent launch of a twice-weekly flight from Kigali to Brazzaville by the national carrier, Rwandair.
Earlier on today, both countries represented by government officials from different ministries of either states led by Louise Mushikiwabo Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation and his counterpart Basile Ikouebe from Congo-Brazaville, discussed areas of bilateral cooperation.
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The Joint Permanent Commission between the two countries has been formed to farther bilateral relationship with areas of cooperation agreed in trade, agriculture, natural resources and human settlement.
President Denis Sassou-Nguesso has been an active government servant in the Republic of Congo for more than three decades.
According to www.congo-brazzaville.org, Sassou-Nguesso was a distinguished General in the military and served on two different occasions as the President of the Republic of Congo, first from 1979 – 1992 and then from 1997 to date.
President Sassou-Nguesso ended the Republic of Congo’s decades-long socialist state and put the country on the path to democracy.
He has previously served as Chairman of the African Union and in that capacity helped direct the organization’s peace efforts in Darfur, Sudan.
Sassou-Nguesso remains committed to preserving the natural environment, especially fostering sustainability and protecting wildlife in the Congo Basin.
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