Dancers perform during a summit marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the African Union, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, yesterday.
ADDIS ABABA: African leaders yesterday celebrated the African Union’s 50th birthday against a backdrop of economic growth but also awareness of the armed conflicts and the other myriad problems faced by the continent.
AU Chairman and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn set a tone of optimism when he launched extravagant celebrations by urging leaders to “create a continent free from poverty and conflict, and an Africa whose citizens enjoy a middle income status.”
But Saturday’s party in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa will be followed by a more sobering two-day AU summit meeting to tackle the range of crises facing the continent. Today’s 54-member AU is the successor of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), established in 1963 in the heady days when independence from colonial rule was sweeping the continent.
African leaders were joined by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, French President Francois Hollande, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, US Secretary of State John Kerry and European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso.
China’s Vice Premier Wang Yang was also reported to be in attendance. Africa remains the world’s poorest continent and its most war-prone but development indicators there — including health, education, infant mortality, economic growth and democracy — have improved steadily in the past 50 years.
Africa is home to some of the fastest-growing economies in the world, according to the International Monetary Fund, and has attracted huge amounts of foreign investment in recent years. Brazil announced yesterday it was cancelling $900m worth of debt in 12 African countries —with Congo-Brazzaville the highest with $352m written off — as part of a broader strategy to boost ties with the continent.
Despite the celebration, 24 out of the 25 nations at the bottom of the UN’s human development index are in Africa, with several of those suffering from unrest or conflict.AFP
