DRC’s Prof. Lumu Alphonse Ntumba Luaba is the new Executive Secretary of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), replacing Tanzanian-born Liberata Mulamula, whose five-year term has ended. Luaba beat off competition from Kenya’s Philip Okanda Owade, a career diplomat working as the Secretary of Local Authorities Administration in the Ministry of Local Government and Sudan’s Dr. Mohammed Ahmed Abdelghaffar, also a seasoned diplomat and accomplished academic. Luaba, who has been deputy Executive Secretary of the Economic Community for the Great Lakes (CEPGL), was unanimously endorsed by the ICGLR member states’ foreign ministers during an inter-ministerial committee meeting. “I’m waiting for the final decision from the Heads of State, tomorrow, and I should be beginning work in January,” Luaba told The New Times yesterday. He decried the proliferation of small arms and light weapons in the region, saying his main task will be to deal with sexual gender-based violence and negative forces in the region. The Congolese law professor previously served as a vice Minister of Justice and Parliamentary Affairs (2000-2001), Minister for Human Rights (200-2003), Secretary General of the transitional government (2004-2006) and Director of national unit of the disarmament, demobilisation and social reinsertion programme (2007-2009). He assumes leadership of the regional grouping at a time when his country remains a hideout of about half a dozen negative forces. gashegu.muramira@newtimes.co.rw
