According to a note released by the Presidency, the conversation, conducted by telephone "in the middle of the afternoon", was the second "in the interval of two weeks" in which Lourenço and Guterres analyzed the "problem of political-military instability" in the CAR.
According to the statement, the two leaders addressed the conclusions of the mini-summit of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (CIRGL), held on 29 January in Luanda.
At the time, CIRGL considered that the "worsening of the situation" in the CAR constitutes a "strong threat to security and stability" in the subregion, mainly from neighboring countries.
In a statement released after the summit, the heads of state and government of the countries that make up this organization expressed concern about "the worsening security situation" in the country through the "persistence of military actions perpetrated by rebel forces".
"The current situation in the Central African Republic represents a strong threat to security and stability in the sub-region and, mainly, in the neighboring countries of the Central African Republic", then underlined the 'Great Lakes'.
The leaders of the countries that represented in the CIRGL "reiterated the validity of the elections" that took place on 27 December and that "proclaimed Faustin Touadéra as President-elect, and therefore will not allow the actors who oppose the results to take power for the force".
The summit also gave "mandate to the acting presidents of CIRGL and CEEAC [Economic Community of Central African States] to take the necessary steps with the United Nations Security Council to lift the arms embargo" on the CAR.
In February last year, in New York, Angola defended the suspension of the arms embargo against the CAR, enacted by the UN in 2013 to avoid confrontation between that country's security forces and armed groups, materialized in Resolution 2536.
The member states of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region are: Angola, Burundi, CAR, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
The organization, currently chaired by João Lourenço, hopes to meet again in the coming days to address, once again, the situation in the CAR.
The CAR fell into chaos and violence in 2013, after the overthrow of the then head of state, François Bozizé, by armed groups gathered in Séléka, which provoked the reaction of other militias, grouped in an anti-Balaka coalition.
Since then, Central African territory has been the scene of community clashes between these groups, which have forced almost a quarter of the 4.7 million inhabitants of CAR to leave their homes.
