AU chair reveals efforts to bring warring factions on the continent to the negotiation table

Pan African Parliament told about behind the scenes efforts to bring warring parties to lay down arms

Efforts are underway to bring the warring factions across the continent including in the latest war in the Sudan to reach ceasefire agreements and bring peace and stability to Africa.

Chairperson of the African Union who is also the President of the Union of Comoros, Azali Assoumani told the opening session of the Pan African Parliament in Midrand this week that he is contact with the warring parties and expects to convince them to favour negotiations.

The African Union (AU) Theme for the Year 2023 is The Year of AfCFTA: Accelerating the Implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area.

“It is clear that in addition to terrorist threats, unconstitutional changes of government, the war in Sudan has worsened the situation. Not only does this war create chaos in this brotherly country, but it risks destabilising an already fragile region, with all the consequences this may have on the people,” Assoumani said.

“We must then, on this aspect too, unite our efforts, and agree on the actions to be implemented, to convince the warring parties to reach a ceasefire and to favour the negotiations, for a happy and rapid outcome of this crisis. I am in contact with the warring parties across our continent and I expect to be able to convince them to favour negotiations,” he added.

The Second Ordinary Session of the Sixth Parliament of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP), has been honoured by the presence of two heads of states when it commenced in Midrand, South Africa last week.

On Wednesday, the Chair of the Committee of African Heads and Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC) who is also the President of the Republic of Kenya, William Samoei Ruto, opened the Third Pan-African Parliament’s Summit on Climate Policy and Equity.

In his welcome remarks, President of the Pan-African Parliament, Chief Fortune Charumbira, described the presence of the AU President as historical and a measure of the Chairperson’s high regard for the importance of the Pan-African Parliament in the continental governance matrix.

“Today, we honour the presence of the African Union Chairperson because in the past, despite being an integral Organ of the African Union, we have sometimes struggled to elicit the attendance of Chairpersons of the African Union. We thank you for this recognition and applaud your exemplary leadership,” said Charumbira.

The focus of this plenary session is on the AfCFTA and how the PAP can effectively contribute to the implementation of this important agreement.

Officially opening the Session President Assoumani pledged his support for the PAP with a view to achieve its objectives of peace, stability, development and the strengthening of democracy and the state of human rights, in Africa.

“I am aware of your commitment and your determination to work in favour of the defence of the interests of the African peoples as our continental legislators. I would like to assure all of you here present, of my firm determination to work in close collaboration with governments and institution, including the PAP, for more peace and progress in our continent,” he said.

President Ruto said the single most important priority commitment that will propel Africa to lasting security, sustainable stability and shared prosperity is an opportunity-oriented focus on climate action.

“Our continent’s abundant wealth of natural resources, immense endowments of untapped green renewable energy and our youthful demographic profile precisely constitute the fundamental elements required to mitigate and then reverse climate change while driving a new, green industrial revolution,” he said.

Ruto said that the need to urgently undertake a fundamental shift in understanding Africa’s global role is overwhelmingly evident on the subject of climate change.

“At the moment, conversations about climate change in Africa focus on the fact that Africa’s contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions is minimal at only 4%, yet the impact of consequent climate change on our people is huge. The discourse also mainly focuses on the important questions of compensation for loss and damage, and funding for adaptation and resilience.”

Ruto was at pains to describe Africa’s discursive profile as having focused on the challenges and difficulties faced and the assistance needed in a way that depicts the Continent as chronically subordinate, eternally vulnerable and perpetually incapable.

“As a consequence, an emerging psychology of victimhood implicates both African and global leadership in a politics of pity and helplessness. It also denies the world’s youngest continental repository of unparalleled abundance the agency to articulate appropriate solutions to its own problems and to offer its unique, indispensable contributions on the broader global stage,” he said.

On the AfCFTA, Ruto accentuated that the initiative is a major step in the right direction to the extent that it seeks to enhance trade within the continent and present it as one large trading area.

“It is absolutely essential to set up a sound global regime of trade and market with robust incentives for low-emission production of goods and services with lower emissions. Such a framework would position Africa as the world’s most competitive industrial, investment and trade destination,” he said. – Pan African Parliament