The 31st African Union (AU) summit yesterday concluded its work in Nouakchott, Mauritania after being overshadowed by some hot issues on top of that security issues after jihadist rebels hammered two Sahel states (Mali and Niger) in successive attacks coincided with the summit.
Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, hosting the gathering of African leaders said the Friday’s bombing “hit (at) the heart” of security in the Sahel and lashed out at a lack of international help.
The two-day summit hosted the gathering of more than 40 heads of state and government and was held under the theme “Wining the Fight Against Corruption” shows that the AU governments are taking the issue of corruption as one the major challenge hindering development in every African country.
The Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa Dr Vera Songwe told the 33rd Ordinary session of the African Union (AU) Executive Council on June 29, “that Africa loses 50 billion dollars a year to illicit financial flows and the African Development Bank estimates that corruption adds 25 percent to the cost of contracts and deals.”
The agenda of the summit of 55 member states African organization includes several challenging political and economic issues like the Western Sahara conflict between Morocco and the Polisario Front, Jihadist movement’s security threats in the vast and unstable Sahel region. The deteriorating security situation in the Central African Republic, peace agreement in South Sudan where a recent ceasefire agreement between feuding parties collapsed soon after it was reached in Khartoum, illegal immigration and coordination on fighting organized and cross-border crime were also among the issues discussed by the leaders during the summit.
The Chairperson of the AU Commission, Moussa Faki emphasized the need for member states to commit to dialogue to resolve conflicts in places such as the Central African Republic, Western Cameroon, Western Sahara and Central Mali where he said people are “paying the price for violence”.
Despite challenges, African leaders are struggling to solve regional crises and address economic and development issues and the African Union (AU) has made several key achievements during the past six months such as the launch of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) in Addis Ababa in January this year, as well as the signing of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the Protocol to the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community Relating to the Free Movement of Persons, Right of Residence and the Right of Establishment in Kigali in March.
Currently, African countries only conduct about 16 percent of their business with each other and if all 55 AU members eventually sign up, it will create a bloc with a cumulative GDP of $2.5 trillion which cover a market of 1.2 billion people. But how could this be visible under the absence of South Africa and Nigeria, the continent’s largest economies out of such deals is the question needed to be answered.
