http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/merkel-set-visit-africa-migrant-crisis-top-issue-42616360
As Merkel Set to Visit Africa, Migrant Crisis Is Top Issue
By CARA ANNA AND GEIR MOULSON, ASSOCIATED PRESS
JOHANNESBURG — Oct 6, 2016, 12:04 PM ET
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is making a three-nation visit to Africa next week, with the migrant crisis leading the agenda.
A German official said Thursday that Merkel will visit Mali on Sunday, Niger on Monday and Ethiopia on Tuesday. Another top issue is support for the fight against terror. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with department rules.
Niger is a major transit point for African migrants making their way north toward Europe, and Merkel is expected to visit a center run by the International Organization for Migration. On Thursday, Merkel said in a speech to Germany's main industry lobby group that some 90 percent of the migrants who reach the Libyan coast come through Niger.
Libya has been a launching point for thousands of migrants setting off toward Europe on often deadly voyages across the Mediterranean.
Merkel said it's important to help ensure "that the first thing young Africans say when they get a smartphone in their hands isn't 'I have to go where I see a better world,' but rather (that they) live in a country in which things are at least getting better step by step."
Ethiopia is the largest refugee-hosting country in Africa, according to the United Nations, taking in more than 700,000 people fleeing conflicts in South Sudan, Somalia and elsewhere.
Merkel is expected to meet with Ethiopia's prime minister and address the country's recent unrest. She also will meet with opposition representatives. Months of sometimes deadly protests have demanded wider freedoms in what is one of Africa's best-performing economies.
The German official on Thursday stressed Ethiopia's role as a "regional heavyweight."
In Mali, Merkel will meet the president and is expected to focus on the implementation of a peace deal reached in June 2015 between Mali's government and armed groups in the northern part of the country. Unrest continues in the region, and Germany contributes more than 550 soldiers to the U.N. peacekeeping mission there.
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Moulson reported from Berlin.
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http://en.europeonline-magazine.eu/merkel-to-travel-to-mali-niger-and-ethiopia-for-talks-on-migration_488208.html
Merkel to travel to Mali, Niger and Ethiopia for talks on migration
Europe 06.10.2016
By our dpa-correspondent and Europe Online
Berlin (dpa) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel will visit Mali, Niger and Ethiopia to talk to local officials about the root causes of Europe-bound migration, government sources in Berlin told dpa Thursday.
Merkel departs Sunday for the three-day trip, during which she will oversee the opening of an African Union building financed by Germany in the Ethiopian capital Addis Abeba and meet with German soldiers in Mali and Niger who are part of the UN mission in Mali.
Also on the German leader‘s agenda are meetings with civil society groups and refugee aid workers, the sources said.
In 2015, Germany recorded the arrival of 890,000 migrants, many of whom had fled conflict in Syria and Afghanistan and economic hardship in North Africa.
In the wake of the unprecedented influx, Merkel has urged the European Union to repatriate African migrants who do not qualify for asylum, sign readmission deals with African nations and boost development aid so migrants have less reason to flee poverty.
She has also said that the bloc‘s refugee deal with Turkey - which has significantly reduced illegal migration across the Aegean Sea - will serve as a model for similar agreements with north African countries including Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.
Received on Thu Oct 06 2016 - 10:53:36 EDT