THE United Nations (UN) has expressed hopes on the leadership of President Samia Suluhu Hassan in progressing regional agenda of the Great Lakes Region in boosting socio-economic development and safeguarding peace and security.
The global organization conveyed the message to President Samia through its Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for the Great Lakes Region, Amb Xia Huang.
President Samia and Amb Huang met yesterday for official talks in Nairobi, Kenya, where the Head of State was in a two day state visit in the country. During their talks, Amb Huang presented a message of condolences from the SecretaryGeneral, António Guterres, to President Samia following the death of former President Dr John Magufuli who died of heart complications in March this year.
In the meantime, the Secretary-General congratulated Ms Samia for taking over the presidency as the first ever female president of Tanzania. He further hailed Tanzania for its great contribution towards the UN’s efforts to protect peace and strengthen security in all areas of conflicts due to emergence of fighting groups.
The SG pledged continued cooperation with Tanzania in protecting peace in order to bring social-economic development. More than 2,600 Tanzanian military and police personnel currently serve in six UN operations, performing a range of vital tasks, such as protecting civilians and community policing.
On her part, President Samia expressed appreciation for the message of condolence and congratulation from the Secretary-General, and assured that the Tanzanian government will continue cooperating with the UN in efforts to protect peace and security in the Great Lakes Region.
The President told Amb Huang that peace and security situation as well as democracy in Tanzania was good and asked UN to continue with efforts to protect peace and security in all areas still facing conflicts. However, President Samia urged the UN to persuade the European Union (EU) to uplift economic sanctions against Burundi.
The EU placed penalties on some politicians and state officials and froze government financing in 2015 during a political crisis that followed former President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to seek a third term.
The EU froze 432 million euro ($514 million) of funding and Belgium blocked disbursement of 60 million euro to the country that depended on foreign aid for much of its budget.