After 54 years, the building of the unity of the African peoples is still a major task while the challenges, which Africans must take up collectively, keep increasing, African Union Commission (AUC) Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat said Thursday as the continent marked the 54th Africa Day.
Mahamat, who took over the AUC chair this year, recalled that at the 24th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in January 2015, the African Heads of State and Government adopted Agenda 2063, establishing the most significant structural transformation programme for the next 50 years in response to these challenges.
“This ambitious programme is a challenge for all Africans and especially their leaders. The implementation of this programme will be carried out in several gradual steps, as provided for in the First Ten-Year Implementation Plan 2014-2023,” he said.
Referring to the Joint UN-AU Framework for Enhancing Partnership in Peace and Security which was signed on 19 April 2017, Mahamat said: “We must continue to promote synergy and complementarity between the UN Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda and our homegrown Agenda 2063.”
“By referring to the need for a strengthened partnership for peace and security, which is one of the priorities of my mandate, I will also frankly admit my heartbreak in the face of the atrocious tragedies that plague South Sudan, Somalia, Central African Republic, the Lake Chad Basin and the Sahel.
“Of all these humanitarian crises, the tragedy of South Sudan is the most unbearable. The proliferation of crimes committed by all parties and the deliberately inflicted and unspeakable suffering of civilians, over 60 per cent of whom are in need of humanitarian assistance, more than 2 million are internally displaced, more than 1 million are refugees, the ongoing famine … this cannot continue,” Mahamat stated, admitting that “the denial of our humanity in this country is a shame to the honour and dignity of the African man, woman and child.”
Source PANA
