AU summit ends with call to battle Al-Qaeda

Newsflash

News Headlines

AU summit ends with call to battle Al-Qaeda

Tuesday, 02 February 2010

AFRICAN leaders, on Tuesday, wrapped up their annual summit less divided and looking at brighter economic propects but still facing a raft of conflicts, including Sudan's predicted break-up.

Senegalese president, Abdoulaye Wade, who has been drumming up support for the fight against Al-Qaeda's North African branch, appealed to Senegal's neighbours to join a round table with neighbouring countries to resolve the issue of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

"This desert terrorism is taking new and very disturbing forms... But countries like Senegal, or Mali, can do nothing on their own. It is an international problem. Western powers will have to intervene too," he said in an interview.

The African Union's peace and security commissioner said, on Tuesday, that a resolution was adopted overnight increasing the pressure on Madagascar leader, Andry Rajoelina, who seized power in a coup in March and did not attend the summit.

"We have already started getting replies from some of the parties but we are waiting for the response of the party that took the unilateral decisions that have called into question the agreements," Ramtane Lamamra said.

The 53-member body's approach to Madagascar had been typical last year of African discordance, with Libyan leader and outgoing AU president Muammar Ghadaffi breaking from the tough stance of the organisation's executive.

United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, had also stressed in his opening speech that the continent needed to curb power-grabs.

The situation in Sudan, where tension has been escalating in the run-up to a 2011 referendum in which the south is widely expected to choose independence from Khartoum, featured high on the summit's agenda.
Many observers fear that a secession in Sudan -- Africa's largest country, bordering nine others -- could further destabilise one of the continent's most volatile regions.