Sudan’s Bashir to attend security forum in Ethiopia

By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

April 14, 2016 (ADDIS ABABA) – Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir will take part in the fifth Tana High-Level Forum on Security in Africa which will kick-off on Saturday in Ethiopia, organisers told Sudan Tribune.

Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir (L), Ethiopian prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn (C) and South Sudanese president Salva Kiir (R) at the third Tanana Forum on Security in Africa held in Ethiopia’s Bahr Dar town on 27 April 2014 (SUNA)

The Sudanese president is expected to arrive in Ethiopia on Friday leading a high-level delegation.

Al- Bashir and his delegation will be leaving for the Northern Bahir-Dar city of Amhara Regional State where the delegation will participate in the continental Security Forum due to be held on 16-17 April, 2016.

He had been participating on the previous Tana security forum under invitations from Ethiopian prime minister.

Over 200 participants including a number of African heads of state and governments, academics, representatives of NGOs and officials of regional, continental and international organizations.

The annual meeting also brings together civil society; the private sector; eminent scholars and practitioners; students, youth media and representatives of African and non-African multi-lateral bodies.

The Sudanese leader is expected to meet with a number his African counterparts on the side lines of the forum.

He is also expected to discuss with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and other senior government officials on bilateral cooperation and on regional security concerns as well as on other crises troubling the east African region.

Africa’s role in global security and peace mission will be high on agenda for discussion during the two-day event which will be held under the theme “Africa in the Global Security Agenda”

Participants will collaboratively engage in thorough discussions on current security status of Africa and are expected to put directions on ways how to enhance cooperation in combating pending security threats posed against the continent.

On the sidelines of the forum, a number of panel discussions and symposiums will take place on areas including in good governance, security and peace in Africa and support for peace-keeping operations on the continent.

Chairman of the Kofi Annan Foundation and former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan will be a keynote speaker to address peace and security-related issues of the continent.

Rwandan President, Paul Kagame, is also expected to address the forum on Africa’s development based on Rwanda experience.

The framing of the global security agenda has enabled major global powers to set their security priorities as if they should also be the primary concerns of the rest of the world.

The Tana forum says Africa has not successfully extricated itself from this dominant paradigm often couched in the framework of the liberal peace agenda.

The continent rather has had to routinely align with the strategic desires of dominant powers, with the implication that it is impotent to define or articulate its own-crafted scheme for peace, security and development.

The Tana forum intends to boost Africa’s struggle to reposition itself in the global security agenda, operationally and normatively, by giving vent to the idea of African Solutions to African Problem in its peace and security affairs.

The whole aim of Tana forum is for Africa to eventually control its own security destiny by crafting home-grown solutions and avoid externally designed solutions particularly those driven from neo-realist assumptions.