Annan warns African Union on Darfur crisis, urges democracy across continent
Pledging United Nations aid to help Africans resolve the crises of strife and displacement on their continent, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today warned that the “the horrific situation” in Darfur in Western Sudan could be a “could be a prelude to even greater humanitarian catastrophe” potentially destabilizing the region.
“The vision that you are working so hard to achieve is imperilled by the persistence of deadly conflict in Africa,” Mr. Annan told an African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, referring in particular to Darfur, where more than a million black Africans have been displaced, often by government-backed Arab militias, in what the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
He welcomed an agreement he reached with the Sudanese Government last week for them to clamp down on the militias as well as steps Khartoum has already taken to remove obstacles to relief operations in Darfur.
“The agreed moratorium on restrictions for all humanitarian work must be observed,” he declared. “The climate of impunity that has prevailed for far too long must end now.”
UN officials have accused the Government of sponsoring, arming and recruiting the militias following fighting with two Darfur rebel groups demanding greater development for the region’s people.
Mr. Annan also expressed concern over the recent upsurge in violence and human rights abuses in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), continued instability in Côte d’Ivoire and continued tension between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
“We must not let the achievements of recent years be rubbed out by a return to an Africa in which millions are plagued by terrible violence,” he declared. “We must work together to end the terrible conflicts that are disfiguring our continent.”
The Secretary-General also noted that more African countries than ever before have democratically-elected governments. “This new spirit of democratic empowerment in Africa must find a home in every African country,” he added.
Turning to HIV/AIDS, he welcomed the leadership that “more and more of you are showing” in fighting the pandemic. “The worst thing we can do is to be silent about this terrible disease. Silence equals death,” he warned the assembled African leaders.
“As some African countries have proved, HIV/AIDS need not be a death sentence for whole societies. It takes vocal leadership from the President’s office down to the schoolyard,” he declared. “It demands prevention and treatment strategies backed up by investment in health and education – particularly girls’ education. It requires policies to reduce stigma and discrimination.”
After delivering that speech, the Secretary-General attended a ceremony where the leaders of Gabon and Equatorial Guinea signed an agreement to resolve their border dispute peacefully.
Mr. Annan hailed the accord, which he said "will lead to joint exploration of the island in dispute while they continue the demarcation of their border." He also said the peaceful resolution of the dispute should serve as an example to other leaders.
In a separate development, the Secretary-General this evening convened a "mini-summit" on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to a UN spokesperson.
In a meeting in Addis Ababa yesterday Mr. Annan issued a clarion call for a major effort to overcome the hurdles in the battle against hunger on the continent by addressing the interconnected challenges of agriculture, health care, nutrition, adverse and unfair market conditions, weak infrastructure and environmental degradation.
“Tragically, the past decade has seen very little progress. For dozens of countries, the Millennium Development Goal of halving hunger by the year 2015 seems more a far-off fantasy than an achievable target,” he said in opening remarks to the high-level event on “Innovative Approaches to Meeting the Hunger Millennium Development Goal in Africa: Africa’s Green Revolution: A Call to Action.”
“Let us generate a uniquely African green revolution – a revolution that is long overdue, a revolution that will help the continent in its quest for dignity and peace,” he declared. “And let us never again allow hunger, needless hunger, to ravage lives and the future of a continent.”
On Saturday, the Secretary-General visited Eritrea, reviewing the work of the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE). He also met with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki to discuss the peace process between those two countries, and cited the intelligent way that Nigeria and Cameroon are handling their dispute in the Bakassi peninsula as a model that the Horn of Africa States might follow.