55 countries are taking part in the 36th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, starting Saturday 18 February.
The opening ceremony took place in the morning at the organization’s headquarters in the presence of around 35 heads of state and four heads of government, in the purest tradition of an African organisation.
On the agenda are, among other things, the acceleration of the continental free trade area, which is struggling to be realized, and the fight against terrorism and armed violence.
The Comoros President this morning replaced Senegalese Macky Sall as the organization’s rotating president.
“Our organization has just shown the world that it believes all countries have equal rights,” President Azali said.
For the first time, this Indian Ocean archipelago of less than a million people took power after a bitter struggle with a candidate in Kenya until President William Ruto recently decided to withdraw his candidacy.
Among the highlights of his first speech, the President of Comoros pleaded for a total cancellation of the African debt: “We plead for a total cancellation of the African debt to allow recovery of the post-Covid economy and allow us to cope with the negative impacts of the crisis in Ukraine.
22 African states are today, according to the World Bank, in a situation of distress with regard to their debt, and concentrate a significant part of the 1071 billion dollars of the external debt of the continent. For African debt sustainability, we urge the establishment of a common debt settlement framework that will be more inclusive and integrating bilateral and multilateral creditors and also private creditors, with enhanced support from the International Monetary Fund. »