At AU Malabo Summit African Heads of State Meeting Starts Today

The Daily Observer (Banjul)

Daily Observer

30 June 2011

The 17th Ordinary Session of the African Union Heads of State and Government Summit opens today, Thursday, June 30th, 2011 at 10:00 at the Sipopo Conference Center in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Central Africa under the theme: “Accelerating Youth Empowerment for Sustainable Development”.

At the invitation of Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the president of the African Union Commission, during the three-day meeting, leaders are expected to adopt the decisions and recommendations of the 19th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council as well as the declarations of the summit. Presidents will also agree on the date and venue of the 18th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Union. Under AU rules, the bloc’s political leadership rotates annually between Africa’s five geographic regions.

Speakers at the opening session will include Mr. Jean Ping, Chairperson of the African Union Commission; Ms Asha Rose Migiro; Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations; Mr. Ahmed Ben Helt Deputy Secretary General of the League of Arab States; Mr. Lula Da Silva, former President of Brazil and special envoy of the Brazilian President; and Mr. Teodoro Ibiang Nguema, President of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea and Chairperson of the African Union. The opening session will also see the launching of the Pan African Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign (PATTEC) activities in the Central African region. There will also be a ceremony of the laying of the foundation stone for the African Observatory for Science, Technology and Innovation. The opening ceremony is expected to end at 11:45 am.

At 15:00GMT the same day, the Heads of State and Government and other high ranking executives will start discussing the theme of the summit i.e. Accelerating Youth Empowerment for Sustainable Development. Speakers on the theme will include Prof Jean Pierre Ezin, Commissioner for Human Resources, Science and Technology at the African Union; Mr Meles Zenawi, Prime Minister of Ethiopia: Mr Amadou Toumani Toure, President of Mali; Mr Armando Emilio Guebuza, president of Mozambique; Prof Babatunde Osotimehin, Director of thr United Nations Population Fund; Dr Frannie Leautier, Executive Secretary of the African Capacity Building Foundation and representatives of youth from the Central and Northern African regions.

Heads of State and Government and 6 youth representatives from the 5 geographical regions as well as the host country will intervene during the summit theme debate. The Heads of State and Governmnet Summit is preceeded by the Ordinary Session of the Summit of the African Union which officially began on Thursday June 23 2011, with the 22nd Ordinary Session of the Permanent Representatives Committee (PRC). The Ambassadors of the AU Member States also met from the 23-24 June 2011 at their 22nd Ordinary Session. They shared views on the report of the PRC sub-committees, budgetary and financial matters on the draft budget for 2012, and on the status of implementation of the new AU staff regulations and rules.

The host, President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, is a class of leader targeted in the uprisings in the north of the continent. He has ruled tiny Equatorial Guinea since 1979, when he seized power in a coup and has exerts almost total control over the political system and, though oil has given the country wealth, there is little sign it has trickled down to ordinary citizens and made their lives easier.

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