Africa holds ‘silence the guns’ summit

AFRICAN heads of state gather Sunday at the headquarters of the African Union for a summit meeting due to focus on how the body can play a more prominent role in resolving conflicts proliferating across the continent.

The two-day summit has taken as its theme “Silencing the Guns,” yet AU officials are well aware of their failure to achieve the goal adopted in 2013 of ending “all wars in Africa by 2020.”

In remarks to African foreign ministers ahead of the summit, AU Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat painted a bleak picture of the continent’s security situation, citing extremist threats stretching from the Sahel to Somalia.

The “missed deadline” to silence the guns, he said, “reveals the complexity of the security situation in Africa.”

The focus on conflicts this year marks a departure from multiple years of summits dedicated to reforming the AU -- including its funding structure -- and the implementation of a continentwide free trade area.