NEW: President arrives in Zambia for SADC Double Troika meeting

Lovemore Chikova in LUSAKA, Zambia

PRESIDENT MNANGAGWA arrived in Zambia on Saturday morning for an extraordinary summit of the SADC Organ Troika and SADC Troika, which will consider progress reports on the region’s peace and security missions in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province.

He was received at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport by senior Zambian officials, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Dr Frederick Shava and Zimbabwean Ambassador to Zambia Charity Charamba.

Apart from members of the SADC Organ Troika and the SADC Troika, the summit includes countries that have contributed troops to the SADC mission in the DRC and Mozambique.

Including the DRC and Mozambique, other countries expected at the extraordinary summit are Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Namibia, Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi and South Africa.

In preparation for the Heads of States and Government extraordinary summit, the SADC ministerial committee of the organ held its own extraordinary meeting yesterday.

Ambassador Shava was part of that meeting.

The SADC mission in Mozambique is expected to withdraw on July 15 this year after restoring normalcy in Cabo Delgado, while the 43rd Ordinary SADC Summit of Heads States and Government held in August last year in Angola approved the deployment of the SADC mission in the DRC.