39th African Union Summit

The 39th African Union summit ended this Sunday after two days of discussions. It took place in Addis Adaba, Ethiopia and had for main theme “Assuring Sustainable Water Availability and Safe Sanitation Systems to Achieve the Goals of Agenda 2063”. In this occasion,Évariste Ndayishimiye, president of Burundi took the place ofJoão Lourenço, president of Angola, at the head of the African Union.

Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, Chairperson of the African Union Commission and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Djibouti opened the summit with a few words about the multiple crisis affecting the continent from the civil war in Sudan, the clashes in the North Kivu to Somalia’s instability and called for the end of the “extermination” of the Palestinians.He also addressed a concern over some African government born out of coup but M.Ndayishimiye affirms his collaborations to help the states in Sahel, to which he is the special envoy, to fight terrorism. The members from the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) are suspended from the AU.

The general secretary of United Nations, Antonio Guteres called for a cease fire in Sudan, who is suspended from the AU. He also holds a strong position on the role of Africa as he said: “…the absence of permanent African seats in the security council is indefensible…Whenever decisions about Africa and the world are on the table, Africa must be at the table”.

Georgia Meloni, of Italy was also present. She

The Western Saharan question was omitted even if the territory is a member of the AU. A few days ago, on the 8thof February, an agreement was being discussed in Madrid with every actor involved under US mediation.

No decision was made concerning the crisis in Congo and Sudan, but the AU affirms its role in the mediation for the implementations of the Washington Agreement.

Finally, the AU adopted the Declaration of Algiers who recognizes colonization as a crime against humanity.