African leaders to focus on ending conflicts
ADDIS ABABA: The African Union (AU) Commission on Monday announced that African leaders will convene the annual AU assembly summit on silencing the guns in February, with particular focus on finding durable solutions to conflicts across the continent.
The 33rd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the AU, which will take place from February 9 to 10, will be held under the theme “Silencing the Guns: Creating Conducive Conditions for Africa’s Development,” the 55-member pan African bloc disclosed in a statement on Monday.
The African leaders’ summit, which will be held at the headquarters of the AU in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, will be preceded by two high-level sessions -- the meetings of the Permanent Representatives’ Committee (PRC) and the Executive Council of the AU Commission, respectively — that will put forth the agenda as well as major recommendations for consideration to summit.
The 39th Ordinary Session of the PRC, which is slated to be held from January 21 to 22 under the framework of the 33rd African Union (AU) summit
This will bring together ambassadors of the 55 African Union (AU) member states that are based in Addis Ababa as well as key AU officials, among others, it was noted.
The PRC meeting will prepare the agenda of the AU Summit with appropriate recommendations for consideration by the 36th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the AU Commission, comprising African foreign ministers, which is scheduled to take place from February 6 to 7.
African foreign
The 55-member pan African bloc had recently announced that it will reinforce its efforts to silence the continent’s guns, focusing in 2020, on addressing the underlying root-causes and facilitating socioeconomic development on the continent
ministers, during their two-day Executive Council meeting, are also expected to consider key recommendations on the African continent’s theme for the year 2020: “Silencing the Guns: Creating Conducive Conditions for Africa’s Development,” ahead of the session of the AU assembly of heads of state and government, as African leaders are set to gather at the AU headquarters from February 9 to 10.
As part of AU’s 50-year continental development Agenda 2063, the African leaders back in January 2017 had adopted the AU Master Roadmap of Practical Steps for “Silencing the Guns in Africa by 2020” continent-wide initiative as a flagship project that aims to end all conflicts in Africa by 2020 with the provision of specific timelines and streamlined division of targets among various stakeholders implementers, including AU member states, panAfrican institutions, as well as international and bilateral partners.