UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Africa to take “action for peace” to address escalating violence as the continent’s leaders attended their annual summit in Addis Ababa
Africa is suffering from a record drought in the Horn and deadly unrest in the Sahel area and the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with the African Union (AU) gathering attempting to address these challenges and resuscitate a stuttering free trade treaty.
Most of the sessions during the two-day summit will be placed behind closed doors at AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital.
But eyes will be on the group to see whether it can establish ceasefires in the Sahel and the eastern DRC where the M23 militia has captured swaths of territory and created a diplomatic crisis between Kinshasa and Rwanda’s government, which is accused of helping the rebels.
“I am profoundly worried by the recent escalation in violence by armed groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and the growth of terrorist organisations in the Sahel and elsewhere,” Guterres told the conference.
“The instruments for peace are collapsing,” the UN secretary-general said. Nevertheless, he encouraged the bloc to “continue to struggle for peace”.
At a mini-summit, leaders of the seven-nation East African Community asked for all armed groups to evacuate from seized territories in the eastern DRC by the end of next month.
Guterres met with numerous African leaders on Friday, including Rwandan President Paul Kagame, to address in particular the problem in the Congo.
A Restoration of democracy
Junta-ruled Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea, which have been suspended from the AU, cannot join this weekend’s conference.
But ambassadors of the three states are in Addis Ababa to lobby for readmission.
“I welcome your request for the restoration of civilian and democratically elected administrations in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali and Sudan,” Guterres said.
Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairman of the African Union Commission, said to the audience the union needs to come up with new ways to confront the backsliding of democracy on the continent.
He remarked that “sanctions placed on member nations after unlawful changes of administration; do not appear to generate the desired consequences”.
“It appears important to reassess the structure of opposition against the unlawful measures to make it more effective,” Faki said.
The meeting will also strive to speed the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) announced in 2020.
The accord is hailed as the greatest in the world in terms of population, combining 54 out of 55 African nations, with Eritrea the sole holdout.
African countries presently trade just around 15 per cent of their products and services with each other, and the AfCFTA seeks to expand that by 60 per cent by 2034 by abolishing practically all barriers.
But the execution has fallen considerably short of that aim, running into difficulties like arguments over tariff reductions and border restrictions prompted by the Covid-19 outbreak.
The African leaders are also scheduled to debate the food problems shaking a continent hit hard by the worst drought in four decades and the knock-on effects of the conflict in Ukraine that have driven up the cost of basic products.
A Limited diplomatic weight
Created in 2002 after the disbanding of the Organisation of African Unity, the AU contains all 55 African nations, with a population of 1.4 billion people.
While the bloc has been recognized for taking a position against coups, it has long been derided as impotent.
Kagame, who has been lobbying the AU to adopt big reforms for years, is set to report on the reform of the bloc’s structures.
The Rwandan leader has asked for the AU to take measures towards financial independence, with the union mostly reliant on foreign donors.
Comoros President Azali Assoumani, leader of the tiny Indian Ocean island of roughly 900,000 people, took up the one-year rotating AU chairperson from Senegal’s Macky Sall.
The 64-year-old Assoumani would “need the assistance of other top African leaders to execute the duty, given his country’s low diplomatic weight”, according to the International Crisis Group think tank.
