Botswana condemns Morocco’s aggression on Western Sahara

Dr. Mokgweetsi Masisi

Let me join my other colleagues in commending you for the excellent manner with which you are steering the proceedings of our Meeting.

I also wish to pay special tribute to you, Chair, for your resolute and steadfast leadership of our Union during this difficult time of COVID- 19 pandemic. I also note with appreciation the efforts by the African Union Commission and its organs, particularly the Africa Centre of Disease Control, for their unwavering commitment to alleviate and mitigate the impacts of COVID- 19.

It is indeed petrifying to note the scientists’ warning that the full extent of this pandemic is still ahead, with some countries already battling the second wave. Even more worrisome is that the overall effect of COVID- 19 is not just the challenge to our mitigation efforts in public health outbreaks. In some parts of the continent, the pandemic has exacerbated or triggered civil strife and conflicts, including suppression of basic human rights as Member States continue to enforce COVID- 19 health protocols.

In this regard, I wish to commend the Commissioner for Peace and Security, Smail Chergui, and the African Union High Representative for Silencing the

Guns, Ramtane Lamamra, for including the COVID- 19 in their reports as one of the serious threats to peace and security. I also commend them for their comprehensive and informative reports.

Chairperson, I believe we can all recall the sanctity and high level of purpose with which we adopted the 50th OAU/ AU Anniversary Solemn Declaration, on 25 May 2013. Through the Declaration, we pledged not to bequeath the burden of wars to the next generations. We thus undertook to end all wars in Africa by the year 2020.

Yet, it took us almost five ( 5) years to launch the implementation of the AU Master Roadmap of Practical Steps to Silence the Guns in Africa, which was only done in January 2017. I therefore strongly feel that we, as Leaders, betrayed the trust and confidence of our peoples. We simply failed our compatriots. As a result, the guns continue to deafen our Continent into economic stagnation, deprivation, poverty and disease.

We all know that our countries will never realise their full potential for development without peace and security. We also know that peace and security cannot be sustained without effective socio- economic development. I therefore hope that, through our deliberations today, we can, once again, as Leaders, recommit ourselves to do more, and in earnest, towards ending all conflicts on our Continent. This we owe to our peoples, as a way of creating a conducive environment for the upliftment of their livelihoods and the economic develop