African leaders have gathered for the two-day 33rd Ordinary Session of the Assembly in Ethiopian capital Adis Ababa to commemorate 50 years of the African Union and discuss the continent’s most salient concerns.
One of the focuses of the summit is on gun violence, with the theme of the summit being “Silencing the Guns: Creating Conducive Conditions for Africa’s Development”. Leaders will discuss why countries have failed to meet their previous deadline of ending “wars in Africa by [the end of] 2020”, with conflicts still raging in Libya, Mozambique, and South Sudan, to name a few. That being said, progress has been made in the Central African Republic and Sudan.
In fact, ending the conflict is one of the priorities of the summit, with the United Nations calling on the African Union to play a more significant role in de-escalating conflict in the continent. Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso said that the creation of an African peace force in Libya is being discussed.
Several African leaders also used the platform to criticize US President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan, with AU Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat said that it was a "violation of multiple United Nations and African Union resolutions" and "trampled on the rights of the Palestinian people". These sentiments were echoed by outgoing AU chair and Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, and his successor as AU Chair and South African President, Cyril Rampaphosa.
In terms of future vision, the summit has laid out the Agenda 2063 plan, which hopes to end conflicts and achieve stability across the continent by 2063. The new chair of the AU, Ramaphosa, said he would pursue economic development, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), gender equality, and peace.
The Sunday session of the summit was also attended by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who wishes to garner African support for Canada’s bid to gain a seat on the United Nations Security Council.
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