African Diplomacy Observer

The French State Secretary for Cooperation and Francophonie, Mr. Jean-Marie Bockel travelled to South Africa, Lesotho and Namibia from September 9-12, 2007. In South Africa, the Secretary had talks with the Deputy-Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Aziz Pahad and visited some projects funded through loans from the French Agency for Development (AFD). Mr. Bockel also took part to the signing of a €40 million Convention between the AFD and the ABSA Bank in favor of social housing projects.

In Namibia, the French Official signed with the Prime Minister, Mr. Nahas Angula, a Framework Partnership Document aims at enabling loans or gifts totaled to €130 million over the period 2007-2012. France envisions to focus its cooperation in that country in the areas of education and infrastructure, notably in the energy sector, with possible recourse to the French Fund for World Environment. Mr. Bockel also proceeded to the launching of a new project amounting to €1 million over three years supported by the Social Solidarity Fund. This fund will be affected in priority to the promotion of Human Rights and to the support of micro-enterprises.

In Lesotho, the State Secretary had talks with the King Lestsie III and with the Prime Minister, Mr. Pakalitha Mosisili. The visit of the French State Secretary was also the opportunity for the delivery of a French food assistance of $500,000 channeled through the World Food Programme (WFP).

Source: French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs

Jean-Marie Bockel, the French State Secretary for Cooperation and the Francophonie will travel to Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon from September 30 to October 3, 2007.

During the Equatorial Guinea step, he will have talks with President Obiang Nguema on bilateral cooperation issues and on the promotion of the French language in that Spanish speaking-country that expressed its willingness to get closer to the Francophonie organization. Mr. Bockel will also meet with the French community in Bata and launch the building of the new French Cultural Center in that town.

In Cameroon, Mr. Bockel will meet with President Paul Biya on the eve of his visit to France. This step will also be the occasion to address issues relating to the bilateral cooperation between the two countries. France is the first donor of Cameroon. During his stay in Cameroon, the French State Secretary will first visit some urban development projects fund through the Debt Reduction and Development Contract and meet with people from the Franco-cameroonian business milieu. In the political capital, Yaounde, before presiding over the Standing Commission in charge of their bilateral cooperation, Mr. Bockel will sign with the Cameroonian Minister of External Relations two conventions of financing within the framework of the cooperation in the area of good governance (support to decentralization, cooperation in the policing area).

Moreover, after attending, on October 2, a dinner offered by the Cameroonian authorities, Mr. Bockel will visit the EI-Force project being implemented at the Sub-regional School of Awae within the framework of the defense cooperation. Finally, after a meeting with the Cameroonian civil society, he will travel to the Far-Northern part of the country, Maroua, where he will take part to the opening of the Makabaye Bridge and meet with the Ministry of Justice.

Source: French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs

US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, and Libyan Foreign Ministry, Abdelrahmane Chalgam, met on September 26, 2007 in New York over the situation in Darfur. At that occasion, the Libyan Foreign Ministry invited Mrs. Rice to attend the peace conference to be hold in Libya on October 27, 2007 between Sudanese government and Darfur rebel factions to try to reach a political agreement on the conflict that is ravaging the Western province of Sudan since 2003. According to a US official commenting on that meeting, it was of a good quality.

The US Special Envoy for Sudan, Andrew Natsios, began on September 26, 2007 a ten-day visit to Sudan, where he hopes to help peace efforts both in Southern Sudan and the war-torn Western region of Darfur. He is scheduled to meet with Sudanese officials on Thursday to discuss the situation in Darfur and to travel to that region later this week. He is also expected to travel to Southern Sudan where a 2005 peace agreement is said to be in jeopardy. According to some US diplomats, Natsios will also help negotiate border demarcation between North and South and particularly the statute of the oil-producing central Abiye region.

Andrew Natsios was appointed by Georges Bush on September 19, 2006, while addressing the UN General Assembly, as his Special Envoy for Sudan. He is a Professor on the Practice of Diplomacy and Advisor of International Development at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University.

Source: VOA News

Norway and Sweden announced that they will contribute a joint engineer force to the UN-AU Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) authorized on July 31, 2007 by the resolution 1769 of UN Security Council. This joint effort will aim to ensure the effective deployment of the force by the end of 2007 and is being planned for a period of up to 12 months.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said that Norway and Sweden consider it important to assist the UN in its efforts to create peace in Darfur, and that it is crucial that progress is made in the political talks between the parties to the conflict.

This support is part of an international mobilization to provide the UNAMID with the necessary means (human, technical, financial, etc.) to carry out it mandate in a security, humanitarian, political and geographical environment particularly challenging.

Source: Norway Ministry of Foreign Affairs

On August 28, 2007, China donated 300,000 US dollars to the African Union (AU) in support of its ongoing peacekeeping operation in the shattered Somalia. This support will undoubtedly support the AU which is regularly experiencing structural difficulties, including financial ones, in the framework of the maintenance of peace and security in Africa and particularly in the deployment and conduct of its peace support and peacekeeping operations on the continent.

According to the AU Chairperson, Alpha Omar Konare, such assistance from the international community was very welcomed, as it would help the AU deploy the much-needed military force in Somalia, which would contribute to the stabilization of the situation there. He also stressed the AU’s determination to support the ongoing internal dialogue in Somalia, saying that the AU Commission would take necessary action to reinforce the outcome of the dialogue and speed up the follow-up process.

The Chinese Ambassador to Ethiopia and, at the same time, Chinese Representative to the AU, Lin Lin, for its part said that the Chinese Government intended to continue to support the AU’s efforts to bring peace to Somalia and other areas of conflict in Africa.

The AU Mission in Somalia, the AMISOM, was created in January 2007 by the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) and authorized in February 2007 by the UN Security Council to contribute for a period of six months to the initial stabilization of the ravaged country before the setting up of a UN operation that will take on the long-term stabilization and post-conflict reconstruction of the country.

Source: Xinhua via COMTEX