African Diplomacy Observer

John Negroponte, the US Deputy Secretary of State, undertook on 11 April 2007, an eight-day-trip throughout Africa. During this trip, the US Senior officials will visit Sudan, Chad, Libya and Mauritania. In Sudan and Chad, he will certainly address the security and humanitarian situations in the Western Province of Darfur and its regional implications, in the Eastern part of Chad notably as well as ongoing efforts to achieve peace in Sudan through implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and particularly to stabilize the situation through the effective setting up of a hybrid UN-AU mission. In Mauritania, the Deputy Secretary will attend the inauguration of the newly elected president, Mohamed Ould Cheikk Adellahi and meet with some African Leaders who will be present.

The US Deputy Secretary is accompanied by the Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs, Jendayi Frazer, and the Senior Director and Special Assistant to the President for African Affairs at the National Security Council, Bobby Pittman, Jr., and Representatives from the Department of Defense and USAID.

Source: US Department of State

Individual decisions regarding appointment of some foreign service officers in senior and top positions in headquarters were taken during the Council of Ministers held on 28 March 2007. Among the diplomats concerned, Kodjo Menan, former Chargé d’Affaires in the Permanent Representation to the UN in New York, was appointed as new Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and African Integration; Martha Nonon-Saa, former Chargé d’Affaires at the Embassy in Washington D.C, was appointed Head of the Ministry’s African Integration Direction. Other similar decisions were taken.

Source: Official Portal of the Republic of Togo

The African Union (AU) Commission will lauch in the context of the Africa Day celebrations on 25 May  2007 a continent diplomatic passport that will be strictly issued to African Heads of State and Government, Ministers, Ambassadors and leaders of African institutions. According to the Chairperson of the AU Comission, Alpha Oumar Konare, this document will symbolize African solidarity and will enable these personalities to travel across the continent without any visa.

This inititative, as symbolic as it is, and althought viewed as a first step towards accelerating the free movement of persons, goods and services on the continent, is however exemplifying a reality, that of an integration undertaken from the top without similar efforts to get African populations involved. In that respect, freedom of movement in some sub-regions, still remains a challenge for Africa integration.

Source: Southern African News Features

Prior to the Assembly of Heads of States and Government, the Executive Council of the African Union elected to following five members of the Peace and Security Council (PSC) for a three-year term as of March 2007:

- Gabon (for Central Africa)

- Ethiopia (Eastern Africa)

- Algeria (Northern Africa)

- Angola (Southern Africa)

- Nigeria (Western Africa)

The PSC of the African Union is composed of ten (10) members elected for a term of two years and five (5) members for a term of three years. Its main objectives are to:

- Promote peace, security and stability in Africa;

- Anticipate and prevent conflicts;

- Promote and implement peace-building and post-conflict reconstruction activities to consolidate peace and prevent the resurgence of violence;

- Co-ordinate and harmonize continental efforts in the prevention and combating of international terrorism in all its aspects;

- Develop a common defence policy for the Union;

- Promote and encourage democratic practices, good governance and the rule of law, protect human rights and fundamental freedoms, respect for the sanctity of human life and international humanitarian law.

So far, the PSC has become a central place where were discussed a number of situations related to conflict and crisis in some countries and addressed issues related to peace and security on the continent . The 70th meeting of the PSC was held on 12 and 13 February 2007, a meeting during which was considered the relations between Chad and the Sudan. The PSC should play an increasing role in strengthening Africa capabilities to takle on their own challenges related to the peace, security and stability of its States and populations.

The African Union hosts this day a concertation meeting in Addis Abeba with the Arab League and 7 Eastern Africa countries, gathered within the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), to address the situation in Somalia with the recent implication of Ethiopia, and the risks pose to this sub-region’s stability.This meeting happens in a fragile and unstable context marked with the intensification of combats between the transitionnal Somalian Governement and islamist combatants from the Union of Islamic Tribunals already installed in Mogadiscio (capital of the country) and controlling 60% of the country. The military intervention of Ethiopia at the sides of the Federal Somali Government of transition marks a turning in the current Somali crisis and make fear an escalation of the conflict.

The meeting, convened by the African Union Commission Chairperson, Alpha Oumar Konaré, is organised after a UN Security Council meeting held on December 26, 2006, without reaching an agreement, and during which its members appeared divised on the question of an immediate cessassion of hostilities.

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) Heads of State and Government Summits respectively scheduled for 22 and 23 December 2006 in Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso, have been cancelled due to the security situation in the city.

France signed with the African Union (AU) a budgetary Aid Convention. This Convention, signed on 14 December 2006, between the Deputy Chairperson of the AU Commission and the France Permanent Representative to the Africa Union, aims at supporting the action of the African Union through its mission (AMIS) in Darfur. This financial assistance amounts to 1 million Euros.

Source: Press Release