‘2010:Make peace happen’

(AU Monitor)-- ‘Make peace happen’, is the slogan of 2010, Year for Peace and Security in Africa. It was officially unveiled on 27/01/2010 by the Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission Jean Ping on the occasion of the New Year 2010 wishes to the journalists at AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

‘We are not claiming that during 2010 there will be no crisis and conflict in Africa…it will enable the installation of the socio-political climate propitious to rooting sustainable peace and security in Africa’, said Ping.

The year of peace and security in Africa aims at four main objectives namely giving a new drive to efforts for peace and security on the continent, giving greater visibility to past and ongoing efforts of the AU to promote peace and security on the ground, rejuvenate the commitments made by heads of State and government in promoting peace and security and establishing a bridge between official efforts to promote peace and security, initiated in the field by grassroots communities.

Ping added that Africa is ‘well under way to find African solutions to African problems’. Asked about the capacities of the AU to tackle all security problems in Africa, Ping said that some people come to Africa and leave when the situation becomes very complicated as did the Americans in Somalia, but ‘we as Africans cannot leave because it is our problem’.

Ping recalled some of the worst conflicts in Africa such as the Angolan civil war that lasted four decades, the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo where at some point in time ten nations were fighting inside the Congo. ‘Though there was external help and influence, all of them were solved by Africans and by African solutions, continued Ping.

Discussions on peace and security in Africa are likely to dominate the 14th summit of the assembly of the AU despite the fact that its theme is on information and communication technologies.

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