Day: May 25, 2023

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Africa Needs to Utilize Huge Potentials To Become Among Major Economic Powers: AU Chairperson

Current Chairperson of the AU and President of the Union of the Comoros, Azali Assoumani, stressed the need for exploiting human potential and huge natural resources in Africa and become one of the major economic powers in the world.

The African continent observed today the 60th anniversary of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and its successor, the African Union (AU) at the headquarters of the union in Addis Ababa.

Speaking on the occasion, Assoumani said that Africa has the capacity to put an end to all crises in the socio-economic development of Africa.

“Our continent has a lot of human potential and huge natural resources that will make the continent one of the major economic powers in the world. We have the capacity but also the obligation to put an end to the crisis of all types faced by the continent in order to sneeringly endeavor to the socio-economic development of Africa.”

The AU chairperson underscored let us see these precious opportunities afforded to us and use our talents, experience and expertise of Africa in order to improve our image.

Speaking on the six decades of journey of the African Union, the chairperson said that the organization has achieved tremendous results.

Therefore, he gave the example of the OAU by attending two major objectives in a very difficult historical context such as the conclusion of the decolonization of Africa and an end to apartheid in South Africa.

However, Assoumani stressed the need for the African generations to learn lessons from our mistakes in order to better prepare their future and offer more promising prospects to the continent.

According to him, African countries have been still facing different major challenges.

“The unconstitutional changes of power have been increasing over the past years, the internal intra African conflict also, terrorism continues to prevail, and consequently, peace, democracy and government of our continent are all threatened in our various regions of our continent.”

Thus, Africa needs to ponder together on the action in order to eradicate poverty, which affects the major part of the population, which is, in fact, an open door for tourism on our continent.

“We should do everything to restore and build the confidence in our continent and develop our potential in all different areas,” the chairperson underscored.

He also gave clues to the imperative need for the African Union to become a member of the G20.

“I have had positive feedback on this matter when I participated in the G-7 summit which has just been held in Japan. It is through this permanent presence that our organization the African Union will have the possibility of giving its views and particularly, on the major economic and financial decisions concerning the continent.”

As chairman of the African Union, Assoumani pledged to press for the reform of the UN that will enable our continent to have permanent seats at the Security Council.

And this should put an end to injustice which has always been inflicted on the continent, he indicated.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

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DRC conflict an international crisis: Geingob

President Hage Geingob has said the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is now an international crisis that needs global assistance from the African Union (AU) and United Nations.

Geingob, who is also the Chairperson of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation, said this during a courtesy visit by the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General to the Great Lakes Region, Huang Xia, here on Wednesday.

“SADC has decided that the war is not only a SADC problem, it has now become an international crisis and must be elevated to the AU and UN level… People are dying… and we are being cajoled to support and condemn Russia and so on, but we have our own problems that nobody seems to pay attention to, and DRC is one of them,” the president said.

Eastern DRC has been plagued by conflict involving at least 122 rebel groups, according to a recent count by the United Nations.

Geingob said the DRC conflict is long term and needs UN recognition, noting that the conflict is beyond SADC capacity due to lack of resources such as troops. He noted that many of the regional countries are faced with domestic problems and are unable to avail troops.

“As Africans we are united politically to provide. People have committed to provide troops, but we don’t have the means… Therefore we must appeal to those who support other countries legally to solve problems to also attend to African problems. People are equally suffering here but nobody seems to care that they are suffering. There seems to be a discrimination, some lives are more supreme than others, but life is life,” said Geingob.

Xia said the UN supports the AU and sub-region organisations in their efforts to find African solutions to African problems and equally to strengthen the objective of the just-ended SADC extra-ordinary Organ Troika Summit and Force Intervention Brigade (FIB) Troop Contributing Countries (TCCs) and coordination between the AU and SADC in efforts to stabilise the security situation in eastern DRC.

“I will continue my effort to support and collaborate with Namibia, SADC and countries in the Great Lakes Region to mobilise the support required for peaceful solutions. A medium priority is to review and strengthen the UN presence in the Great Lakes Region,” he noted.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency

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SADC making progress in containing terrorist activities in Mozambique: Magosi

Remarkable progress has been made in containing terrorist activities in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, enabling the opening of humanitarian corridors for the safe return of internally displaced persons to their places of origin.

Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Executive Secretary Elias Magosi said this in his welcoming remarks at the Extra-ordinary Meeting of the Ministerial Committee of the Organ Troika Plus SAMIM Personal Contributing Countries and the Republic of Mozambique, held in Windhoek on Wednesday.

‘I am pleased to report that through the relentless efforts of the joint operation between the SADC Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) and the Mozambique Defence Forces, remarkable progress has been made in containing terrorist activities there,’ Magosi said.

Conflict erupted in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province after some of Africa’s biggest gas reserves were discovered in the Rovuma Basin off the coast.

Over 4 000 people have been killed and 800 000 displaced due to the insurgency that broke out at the end of 2017.

Magosi said while SADC recognises this achievement, the region must remain vigilant as the terrorists change their mode of operation and seek to expand their influence beyond Cabo Delgado to unleash acts of terrorism against innocent civilians.

He said the SAMIM mandate is due to expire on 15 July 2023 and necessitates SADC charting the way forward to ensure that the gains made in the restoration of peace and security in Cabo Delgado, are sustained.

He said while resource mobilisation efforts from partners are ongoing, there is an urgent need for SADC member states to continue to honour their remittance commitments towards the SAMIM budget to sustain the operational effectiveness of the mission’s troops.

Magosi said the cash flow is depleted and may not sustain the mission for long.

On her part, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah who is the Chair of the SADC Ministerial Committee of the Organ, said more needs to be done to ensure that peace and stability is restored in Mozambique.

‘At this stage I wish to express our gratitude to all member states that have deployed both personnel and equipment in this regard, and also request those that have pledged capabilities to deploy them to the area of operations,’ she said.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency

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Geingob, who is also the Chairperson

President Hage Geingob has said the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is now an international crisis that needs global assistance from the African Union (AU) and United Nations.

Geingob, who is also the Chairperson of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation, said this during a courtesy visit by the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General to the Great Lakes Region, Huang Xia, here on Wednesday.

‘SADC has decided that the war is not only a SADC problem, it has now become an international crisis and must be elevated to the AU and UN level… People are dying… and we are being cajoled to support and condemn Russia and so on, but we have our own problems that nobody seems to pay attention to, and DRC is one of them,’ the president said.

Eastern DRC has been plagued by conflict involving at least 122 rebel groups, according to a recent count by the United Nations.

Geingob said the DRC conflict is long term and needs UN recognition, noting that the conflict is beyond SADC capacity due to lack of resources such as troops.

Xia said the UN supports the AU and sub-region organisations in their efforts to find African solutions to African problems and equally to strengthen the objective of the just-ended SADC extra-ordinary Organ Troika Summit and Force Intervention Brigade (FIB) Troop Contributing Countries (TCCs) and coordination between the AU and SADC in efforts to stabilise the security situation in eastern DRC.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency