The UN Security Council is set to travel to sub-Saharan later this month to meet with the African Union (AU) and consult on ongoing developments in the region, French Ambassador to the UN Gerard Araud, who holds the rotating Council presidency for May, told reporters here Tuesday.
The 15-member body is set to arrive first in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on May 20 to meet with the AU's Peace and Security Council, followed by visits to Khartoum, Sudan, Juba in South Sudan, Abyei in central Sudan, and Nairobi, Kenya.
While in Kenya's capital city of Nairobi, the Council will focus on the issue of Somalia to discuss peacekeeping and reconciliation efforts.
The Council will be back in New York on May 27 to hold consultations ahead of preparations for South Sudan's declaration of independence and plans for a UN presence in the country.
Security Council members have traveled to Africa annually for the last decade. Since 2007, the Council's Africa mission has include bi-annual meetings with the AU's Peace and Security Council.
Meanwhile, at France's initiative, the Council will hold an open debate on May 18 on the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
"We will not be in the DRC forever, at least not in terms of a significant military presence. So we do need to begin a long process of consideration with the authorities in the DRC to see what form the United Nations presence might take in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in coming years," said Araud.