African leaders' summit urges action on rising militant threat
Thu Jun 26, 2014 8:21pm GMT
* Egypt's Sisi wants closer cooperation against terrorism
* Leaders pledge support for African security apparatus
* Ban Ki-moon calls for immediate peace talks in Mali
By Daniel Flynn
MALABO, June 26 (Reuters) - African leaders called on Thursday for firm
action against a rising Islamist militant threat stretching across the
continent from Kenya to Mali and pledged to furnish the tools for Africa to
police its own conflicts.
Violence cast a shadow over the opening of the two-day summit of the
54-nation African Union (AU) as Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan rushed
home to deal with the aftermath of a bombing in the capital Abuja on
Wednesday.
At least 21 people died in the attack by suspected Boko Haram militants.
"The continent faces an increasing challenge in trans-border threats, with
terrorism at the forefront," newly elected President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of
Egypt told the opening ceremony in the Equatorial Guinea capital Malabo.
"We need to strengthen our cooperation and align our national policies to
effectively counter this."
Sisi pledged Egypt would play an active role in peacekeeping across the
continent. The former army chief was marking Egypt's return to the
continental bloc after elections meant to turn the page on his ousting of an
elected Islamist president.
The African Union is seeking to put in place an African Standby Force (ASF)
to deal with regional crises.
A senior AU official said on Wednesday progress had been made toward having
the force, which is made up of five brigades from the different regions of
the continent, operational by the end of 2015.
The force has been under discussion for more than a decade but its
establishment has been hampered by concerns over its command structure and
funding.
AU Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said armed Islamist groups from Boko
Haram in Nigeria to al Shabaab in Kenya and Somalia were a menace to the
entire continent. She urged the bloc's Peace and Security Council to study
new ways of countering it.
A final statement from the summit on Friday is expected to make a commitment
to strengthening Africa's security institutions, as well as commitments to
promote sustainable agriculture on the continent.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, addressing the opening ceremony, said
the United Nations would work closely with the AU's strengthened security
apparatus. He called for an end to violence in Central African Republic and
South Sudan.
In Mali, he urged the government to immediately open talks with separatist
rebels in the north, after clashes last month threatened to plunge the West
African nation back into chaos.
An Islamist takeover of northern Mali in early 2012 led to an intervention
by French military forces who repelled the al Qaeda-affiliated insurgents -
a painful reminder to African leaders of their failure to implement their
Standby Force.
Mali's foreign minister told Reuters this week that the first direct talks
between the government and the armed groups were due to start in the coming
weeks in Algeria. (Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Mark Heinrich)