Somalia – Insecurity a Top Issue as African Leaders Meet in …

,menafan– Somtribune) African leaders are meeting at a summit on Saturday expected to discuss the continent’s most pressing challenges, including a new wave of coups in West Africa and a slow response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

African leaders are meeting at a summit on Saturday expected to discuss the continent’s most pressing challenges, including a new wave of coups in West Africa and a slow response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The summit in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, is also expected to gather support for Africa’s push toward permanent representation at the UN Security Council.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in his inaugural address called for cooperation between African countries in seeking two permanent seats on the UN Security Council.

“Today, more than seven decades after the creation of the United Nations, Africa remains a junior participant without meaningful input or role within the international governance system,” Abiy said.

“We must collectively insist that Africa’s appropriate request for at least two permanent seats and five non-permanent seats on the UN Security Council is adopted.”

Speaking via video link, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the cooperation between the United Nations and the African Union “is stronger than ever.” Guterres noted that “injustice is deeply embedded in global systems”, with “Africans” paying the heaviest price.

“The immoral inequalities that suffocate Africa are fueled by armed conflict, political, economic, ethnic and social tensions, human rights abuses, violence against women, terrorism, military coups, and impunity,” he said.

Most of the sessions of the summit will be held behind closed doors.

The African Union, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary in July, has often been criticized for its apparent discrepancies in its response to sporadic crises on the continent of 1.3 billion people.

Prior to the summit, the faction’s most recent major decision was to suspend Burkina Faso after rebel troops ousted democratically elected President Roch Marc Christian Kabor in a coup, citing an inability to stop Islamic extremist violence. The decision comes after the West African regional bloc ECOWAS suspended Burkina Faso.

A new wave of West African coups began in Mali in 2020, followed by Guinea the following year, and then in Burkina Faso at the end of January. Exactly a week later, gunmen tried and failed to overthrow the president of Guinea-Bissau.

There are deadly conflicts elsewhere in countries ranging from Mozambique to Ethiopia.

The International Crisis Group said in a statement that achieving a ceasefire in Ethiopia, supporting dialogue in the Sahel and reforming the African Union mission in Somalia should be among the African Union’s priorities this year.

“It has been a turbulent year for Africa: thousands killed in wars in the Horn of Africa, countries coming back under military rule, and faltering infections and conflicts with Islamic extremism,” the group said ahead of the summit. Institutions of the African Union must be able to address these problems as well as the security threats related to climate change.”

Human Rights Watch urged Senegalese President Mackie Sall to focus on civil protection, justice and accountability as he presides over the African Union.

“Despite the challenges, Sal has the opportunity to demonstrate commitment to AU’s leadership and its founding principles, taking a bold, uncompromising stand against state-sponsored abuse, responding to calls for victim protection and justice. and pushes for equitable and fair multilateral relations with the Global North,” Human Rights Watch’s Africa Advocacy Director Carine Kaneza Nantulya said in a statement.

The rights group said the African Union summit should address the widespread abuses in the conflict between fighters loyal to the Tigre People’s Liberation Front in Ethiopia and the Ethiopian federal government and its allies, including Eritrea.

The Associated Press