African Union Monitor
AU condemns assassination of president Vieira
AU Monitor Weekly Roundup: Issue 170, 2009
2009-03-12, Issue 423
http://pambazuka.org/en/category/aumonitor/54729
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The chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission, Jean Ping strongly condemned the assassination of the President of Guinea Bissau, João Bernardo Vieira hours after that of his army chief of staff, General Batista Tagme Na Wai and called on political leaders in the country to rally behind the legitimate authorities. Meanwhile, the Economic Community of West African States announced that it would send a ministerial delegation to Bissau to ‘engage all stakeholders in an effort to restore confidence among the political actors, civil society and security services and return the country to constitutional normalcy’. Elsewhere, the chairperson of the AU Commission, following a deadly suicide bomb attack that killed 11 Burundian soldiers from the African Union Mission in Somalia, reiterated the AU’s determination to support peace and stability in Somalia and promised to speed up the formation of the security sector in the country. Also in peace and security news, a new report launched by the United Nations Environment Programme analysing the links between the environment, conflict and peacebuilding through fourteen case studies argues that intrastate conflicts are likely to drag on and escalate without a greater focus on environment and natural resources in the peacebuilding process. Marking the start of the military exercise of the stand by brigade of the Southern African Development Community, the deputy staff chief of the Angolan Armed Force praised progress made since its creation up to the present in terms of the participation of member states in peace keeping operations in various parts of the world.
The African Monitor, while praising the formation of the unity government in Zimbabwe and the role played by regional leaders and former President Thabo Mbeki in facilitating the process, said that priority has to be given to addressing urgent humanitarian needs in terms of food, medical supplies and other basic necessities to restore the dignity of Zimbabweans. After the 12th ordinary summit of AU heads of State and Government called for an immediate lifting of the sanctions on Zimbabwe to ease the economic and humanitarian situation in the country and the formation of a unity government. According to some analysts, 2009 looks promising for Zimbabweans as a credible and inclusive power sharing could mobilise further international financial help.
In economic news, Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, while acknowledging that the current financial crisis could have serious impact on African economies, said that recent decline in fuel and food prices came as a relief for most of the continent and that Africa could seize the moment and press on with reforms aimed at ensuring greater competitiveness. United Nations experts told participants at an ‘Electronic/Mobile Government in Africa’ workshop that African Governments failed to take advantage of technological advances that can improve the delivery of services to their citizens and urged African countries to invest heavily in infrastructure to make the most of emerging technologies.
In other news, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade hailed the transformation of the existing AU Commission into an Authority of the Union saying that it was a landmark decision in achieving the ideals of Pan-Africanism and the African peoples’ desire to achieve continental unity. African economists and top academicians met in Nairobi at a congress to deliberate on the possibilities for the adoption of a single African currency as a process of economic and political integration of the continent. Their recommendations will be presented to the June summit of the heads of state and government. The African Network of Professionals is organising the biggest gathering of professionals to share ideas and accomplishments, deliberate on political, economic, socio-cultural, and technological barriers that hamper the development of effective, efficient and sustainable professionalism on the continent.
In environmental news, African ministers who met in Namibia expressed their support for the work of the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa in leading efforts to achieve a sustainable green revolution and noted that it should be complemented by investment in rural areas. Meanwhile, the AU Commission launched a new campaign aimed at reducing the risk of preventable diseases becoming major public health issues and encouraged African countries to launch national health programmes to fight the unhealthy lifestyles that are rapidly catching up with Africa’s growing middle-class.
Chinese President Hu Jintao, on his arrival in Mali on the first leg of a four-nation African tour, expressed his desire to extend China’s trade and investment links in Africa despite the economic downturn. Heads of multilateral development banks invited to a meeting by the African Development Bank to discuss responses to the global financial and economic crisis, underlined their commitment to play a counter-cyclical role to mitigate the impact of the crisis. Finally, decisions and declarations of both the executive council and the assembly of heads of state and governments are now available for download.