Conflict prevention and the alleviation of humanitarian crises in Africa are foreign policy priorities. During its two-year period of membership of the UN Security Council, Ireland has contributed actively to efforts to resolve conflicts in many regions of Africa, including the Great Lakes region – Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi, the Horn of Africa – Ethiopia-Eritrea and Somalia, the Mano River Union region of West Africa – Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and Angola. Significant progress has been made towards securing peace in many of these countries. The wars in Sierra Leone, Angola and Ethiopia and Eritrea are over, the belligerents in the DRC have just reached an agreement to form a transitional Government, one of the major rebel groups in Burundi recently signed a ceasefire agreement with the Government and the Somali factions are currently engaged in peace negotiations in Kenya.