Luanda - Angola's ambassador to Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to the African Union (AU) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Miguel César Domingos Bembe, said in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) that the peace and security situation in Africa is very fragile, given the multiple armed conflicts in the five regions of the continent.
The Angolan diplomat made the statement during a meeting the US Secretary of State's Senior Political Advisor, Salman Ahmed held on Monday with African ambassadors accredited to Ethiopia.
Bembe said the complex peace and security scenario on the continent is marked by the actions of terrorist groups in the Sahel region, the civil war in Sudan and the terrorist acts of negative forces in the Great Lakes Region, particularly in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The diplomat mentioned the political-diplomatic and military tension between the governments of the DRC and Rwanda, with accusations of alleged support for the March 23 Movement (M23) and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), the violent actions of the terrorist and extremist group Al-Shabaab in Somalia, with external projection into northern Mozambique, where it acts in association with Islamic State.
"The conflict in Libya and the political and security situation in some regions of Ethiopia and South Sudan also require constant monitoring," the ambassador said.
He said that the security situation in Africa has increasingly aggravated the social difficulties of the population, delaying the process of sustainable political, economic and social development as well as the implementation of the African Union's 2063 agenda called "The Africa we want" and the United Nations' 2030 agenda on the Sustainable Development Goals, with an exponential increase in generalized humanitarian crises.
"As if that weren't enough, added to this bleak picture of peace and security in Africa is the resurgence of coups d'état and so-called unconstitutional changes of government led by the military, but also the manipulation and alteration of norms in order to remain in power or to run for a new mandate illegally," added the Angolan diplomat.
He emphasized that 71 years after the first coup d'état, the African continent has lived only 25 years without this phenomenon, noting that of the 55 AU member states, only 20 countries have not experienced coups d'état.
Angola as a member of the AU Peace and Security Council reiterates the need to address the factors behind unconstitutional changes of government in Africa, especially aspects of governance deficits and the manipulation of democratic processes, including the tampering with electoral laws, constitutional provisions and term limits to the detriment of democratic norms and principles.
"In this context, the Republic of Angola and the government led by President João Lourenço, Champion of the African Union for Peace and Reconciliation in Africa, not only decrees zero tolerance for unconstitutional changes of government on the continent, but also defends, in letter and spirit, the unequivocal condemnation of any form of rise to power that is outside constitutional provisions and contrary to democratic norms," the diplomat said.
Bembe summarized that the principles of pan-Africanism as set out in the Constitutive Act of the African Union, the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, the Lomé Declaration of July 2000 and the African Governance Architecture, as well as the constitutions of the member states, including the basic principles of democracy, must be respected.
He recalled that in the troubled context of peace and security on the continent, President João Lourenço has been constantly working to strengthen preventive diplomacy and dialogue between the warring parties, since the persistent use of arms has dramatic consequences in the humanitarian, political, economic and cultural spheres.
The diplomat called on the United States of America to support some emblematic projects underway on the continent, as part of the implementation of Agenda 2063 and other national initiatives, focusing on the eradication of hunger and malnutrition.
Bembe said the United States has the opportunity to support the African continent on projects in the fields of agriculture and the blue economy, as well as in implementing the decisions of the next African Summit on Fertilizers and Soil Health to be held in May in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
The problem of climate change, the reform of the Architecture of the International Financial Institutions and the United Nations Security Council, in the spirit of the Common African Position, enshrined in the Ezulwini Consensus and the Sirte Declaration on the allocation of permanent seats to Africa, with all the privileges inherent to them, are issues that, in the diplomat's view, can be resolved with the involvement of the US.AMP
