Coups, COVID and climate test African leaders at summit

By Giulia Paravicini

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – African leaders collect at an African Union summit this weekend to attempt to forge a coordinated response to the COVID-19 pandemic, local weather change, and a spate of navy takeovers from Sudan to the Sahel area.

The bloc, shaped 20 years in the past to advertise worldwide cooperation and harmonise member states’ insurance policies, has struggled to handle six coups https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/w-africa-coups-show-limits-diplomacy-opening-door-new-players-2022-01-26 or tried coups in Africa over the previous 18 months, and the ability grabs https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/burkina-faso-coup-blow-france-sahel-military-mission-unravels-2022-01-25 are excessive on the summit agenda.

Heads of state from continental heavyweight Nigeria, new AU chair Senegal and Kenya are as a result of attend, though absentees will embody some main figures, like President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa and Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni.

“Peace and safety is severely threatened in a number of of our Areas and inside some Member States,” AU Fee Chair Moussa Faki Mahamat stated on Tuesday in an announcement.

The AU suspended https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/african-union-suspends-burkina-faso-after-military-coup-2022-01-31 Burkina Faso on Monday following a Jan. 24 navy coup there.

The leaders may also talk about the bloc’s relationship with Israel. In July, Faki unilaterally accepted Israel’s request for observer standing on the AU, prompting criticism by South Africa, whose ruling celebration strongly backs the Palestinian trigger.

The difficulty was not resolved at an October assembly and can now be mentioned by heads of state. It’s unclear if leaders will vote or merely talk about the difficulty.

Nigeria, Algeria, South Africa, and the Southern African regional bloc are pushing for Israel’s standing to be revoked, in response to an inner memo ready for the summit and seen by Reuters.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Morocco and Togo assist Israel’s presence, one African diplomat stated.

Ebba Kalondo, a spokesperson in chair Faki’s workplace, didn’t reply to a remark request on Israel’s standing.

Sharon Bar-li, head of the Africa division in Israel’s International Affairs Ministry, declined to remark.

Some diplomats concern the Israel dispute would possibly shift consideration from urgent points just like the battle in Ethiopia https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/nearly-40-people-ethiopias-tigray-lack-adequate-food-wfp-2022-01-28 and unrest in Sudan https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/us-prepared-impose-additional-costs-sudans-military-if-violence-continues-2022-02-01 following a coup in October.

The leaders may also talk about local weather change https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-un-africa-idUSKBN27B1LJ, which is aggravating floods, droughts, sizzling climate and locust invasions, threatening meals provides and driving up starvation and migration.

The battle in Ethiopia, which broke out in November 2020 and has killed hundreds, “stays the elephant within the room”, stated one other diplomat who works for the AU.

The assembly in Ethiopia’s capital comes simply three months after the nation declared a state of emergency after rebellious northern forces threatened to march on the capital, and Western and African embassies evacuated residents.

The federal government has since introduced plans to elevate the emergency, and the rebellious forces have principally retreated again into the Tigray area, though combating continues in Afar.

(Reporting by Giulia Paravicini, Enhancing by Maggie Fick, William Maclean)