Posted on 01/13/2012 9:38:52 PM PST by SunkenCiv
The AU wants Africa to manufacture and export finished products to its trading partners rather than just selling them the raw materials as it does now. She cited China, India, the EU and US and other rising stars in trade with the continent, including Turkey and Latin America, and said the AU had held talks on the new breed of partnerships with some of them.
The AU also wants Africa to have a veto-wielding seat on the UN Security Council, and a place at the G20 negotiating table, Ali said.
The peace and security that have eluded Africa for decades continue to be high on the list of problems that the continent needs to resolve, but she spoke only of conflict in Sudan. "The AU will continue to look into issues for Sudan," Ali said.
A report released at the conference, Foresight Africa, highlighted other tinderboxes and called for "urgent instability and warfare policy reviews" to meet the challenges the continent faces in not only Sudan but also in Somalia and Nigeria.
The report compares the instability in Africa to the decade-old US-led war in Afghanistan, and warned that if "the current trend continues", a swathe of Africa, stretching from the Horn to Nigeria, "is likely to experience increasing instability and warfare, while narratives of jihadist revolt and terrorist technologies circulate among its citizens".
The unrest could affect Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Sudan, Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia, the report says. Clearly, the AU has to do more than just supervise goings-on in Sudan and its new neighbour, South Sudan.
The AU also pledged to "review the mechanism for democratic process in Africa" after the wake-up call from the uprisings in the Arab world, including North Africa, a year ago, Ali said.
(Excerpt) Read more at allafrica.com ...
G’night all!
AU = African Union.
It is a communist oriented group.
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