Special Envoy Perriello Travels to the African Great Lakes Region and Europe

Office of the Spokesperson
Department of State
Washington, DC
July 17, 2015

Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa Thomas Perriello will travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, France, and the United Kingdom July 19 – August 4. The trip will be the first of Special Envoy Perriello’s tenure and is an opportunity for him to engage with key regional stakeholders on electoral, governance, and security priorities.

In the DRC, Special Envoy Periello will visit Kinshasa and Goma to meet with government officials, opposition members, UN officials, and civil society representatives to discuss upcoming elections and continued security challenges. He will then travel to Burundi, where the United States continues to stress the importance of preserving the Arusha Accords and reaching a political resolution to the crisis. In Rwanda and Uganda, the Special Envoy will meet with government officials to discuss a range of regional and bilateral issues, including electoral processes, regional security threats, and the ongoing crisis in Burundi. The Special Envoy will wrap up his trip with stops in Paris and London to meet with P3 partners about donor coordination and engagement.