AFRICA: Daunting task ahead

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Att.Editors: The following item is by the United Arab Emirates news agency (WAM)

ABU DHABI, Feb 4 2003 (IPS) - The special summit of African Union is taking place at a time of intense political ferment both within and outside the continent, a United Arab Emirates (UAE) newspaper reported today.

– Given their nature, it must be tempting for African leaders to treat the distant crisis in Iraq as a red herring. The responsibility lies with Africa’s elder statesmen to make sure that the continent’s burning problems remain overriding focus instead," wrote the ‘Khaleej Times’ in its editorial, noting that of immediate concern to many countries is the rebellion in Ivory Coast.

South African President Thabo Mbeki, the paper said, underscored the many challenges facing the nascent grouping when he said yesterday in Addis Ababa that ôevents…have emphasized the need for us urgently to constitute the Peace and Security Council which we have already decided". The proposed body is critical to the African Union’s future standing, especially in view of the abject failure of the now defunct OAU to deal with the continent’s festering problems.

ôHowever, the fear of losing sovereignty to an extraterritorial body has held back most member nations from actually signing on the dotted line. In circumstances, the continent has to make do with the meager diplomatic and military resources at its disposal for the purpose of conflict resolution," it said.

It added: ôAlthough the conflagrations in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan have not spun out of control, they have not been fully doused either. The destiny of sub-Saharan Africans lies in the hands of their leaders, who must make a complete break with the past if greater disasters are to be avoided.

ôThe wider world, for all its loud lip service to African causes, has lost interest in the continent, discouraged as much by the daunting scale of problems as by pressing issues like terrorism. It is up to the African Union to prove the doomsayers wrong," the paper concluded.