Regional Peace & Security,Focus of the 14th AU Summit

The 14th African Union summit kicked off Sunday on the theme of "The Challenges and Prospects of Developing Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Africa." Heads of state and governments from 53 member countries of the AU gathered in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia. They have agreed to make continued efforts in maintaining the regional peace and security of Africa in 2010, the year which United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon designated as the year of Peace and Security. CRI correspondent Wei Tong reports from Addis Ababa.

Ban Ki-moon at the summit also addressed his overall concern on the peace, security and stability in Africa. He notes more than half of African nations are expected to hold presidential or parliamentary elections this year and next year so the security situation in Africa is facing challenges. He urged the South and North of Sudan to fully implement the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which was signed in early 2005. He insists he will accept the referendum slated for early next year as to whether South Sudan would be separated from the country because of the choice of the Sudanese people.

"Full and faithful implementation of CPA is in the best interest of Sudanese people and the countries in the region. And UN has been working very closely in parternship with African Union to implement this CPA. We have deployed UNAMID forces. This is first ever joint peacekeeping operations. The result of this CPA would be unity attractive."

The commissioner in charge of peace and security at African Union Lamamra Ramtane addressed the press conference saying that the year 2009 is a difficult year for Somalia, the Horn of Africa. Violence conducted by Al-Shabaab against the Transitional Federal Government caused casualties and severe damage to the infrastructure. Ramtane says the year 2009 is also a promising year because Al-Shabaab's conspiracy to topple the TFG finally failed. He agreed with the role the AU and UN are playing in safeguading the peace and security in the Horn of Africa. He hope more efforts could be done.

"We need to develop a clearer strategic vision of what is needed, precisely to make sure that the negative potential development that we have all on mind would not happen. So I believe that even at the UN level, there is a new art to developing, of course which does not go up to the level of what we have always asked for that is the transformation of AMISON into UN peace operation, we believe whatever the scheme could be for a strong involvement of the international community in Somalia could be, time has come for bold, creative or encompassing attitude on part of the international community."

Wei Tong, CRI News, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.