Panafrican News Agency

AU Summit: African leaders meet against background of huge challenges

Tripoli, Libya (PANA) – African leaders on Sunday began their 33rd Summit in Addis Ababa under the theme: “Silencing the Guns: Creating Conducive Conditions for Africa's Development.”

The theme reflects the ambition of leaders to deal with the root causes of problems which the continent is facing, by ending the multiple conflicts and insecurity delaying its development and making the people suffer, despite the huge riches.

Against that big ambition are huge challenges, with regard to the complexity of the nature of the conflicts, poor finances, as well as the lack of integration between AU member countries, according to analysts.

Africa has energy and resources enabling it to develop itself, run shoulders with big blocs and groupings in the world to influence policies, choices and the future of the planet.

As a consequence of the insecurity, sub-Saharan Africa accommodates more than 26% of the world's refugees, or more than 18 million people, displaced by force by terrorism, the effects of climate and conflicts, according to statistics released by the UN High Commission for Refugees (HCR).

Beyond the causes of the conflicts and wars that weigh heavily on the continent and the prosperity of its populations, the need to face and end the cycle of violence is clearly of absolute priority.

The chairman of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, said "the Libyan conflict and the rise in terrorist attacks in Somalia and the Sahel region, and around the Lake Chad basin are of major concern for the African continent".

In a speech on Saturday by the AU Peace and Security Council at Summit in Addis Ababa on the theme: "How to eradicate the spiral of violence in Libya and strengthen the stability in Sahel," Mr Faki called for the re-evaluation of the African Union's "security doctrine", explaining this by the complexity of those conflicts and the failure of efforts to maintain peace.

Hamza Anouar al-Cherif, a Libyan university professor and specialist of Africa, hailed "the audacious choice" of the African Union to act to resolve the conflicts and make it a priority.

Mr al-Cherif said that "the importance is to prioritise a global political solution concerning the terrorist attacks perpetrated in several countries of the continent".

Massoud Montadher Laabidi, a Libyan political analyst, urged the continental organisation to work endlessly towards a bigger democratization in African countries for their people to be in charge of the management of their resources and in the choice of their leaders.

According to him, as long as totalitarian regimes are established, inequalities, injustices, extremism and repressions will continue pushing African young men to wars and the use of force as means of expression. They would also resort to illegal immigration to Europe to flee a sad reality at the risk of their lives.

He also called "for a bigger sovereignty of the decision-making in Africa", and for the African Union to have the means to promote the mechanisms for the resolution of conflicts that already exist particularly through the Peace and Security Council.

For the 33rd African Union Summit on 9-10 February, the goal is mainly to validate the option of peacekeeping forces in African regions.

Libya which, next to Sahel region, dominated the works of the session needs African observers to control the truce proclaimed on 12 January and which the Libyan joint 5+5 military council is trying in Geneva to transform it into permanent ceasefire.   

Abdelmonem Slah al-Fitouri, a Libyan military expert, said that "the African Union can succeed in its peacekeeping missions", adding that "Africa has experience in that sense through the expeditions in Somalia and in other countries of the world within the framework also of the UN peacekeeping mission".

He added that the enthusiasm showed by Africa to participate in the deployment of observers in Libya can constitute an opportunity for the African Union to be more involved in the Libyan dossier.

Mr al-Fitouri said that the only question is funds and suggested that "the United Nations and the European Union deal with the financial and logistic aspects".

-0- PANA BY/TBM/MSA/MA 9Feb2020