AFRICA/UGANDA - AU Summit focus on terrorists; children and mothers killed by disease and malnutrition forgotten

Kampala (Agenzia Fides)- Every year in Africa 4.5 million children and 265,000 pregnant women die of disease and malnutrition. This drama was to be the focus of the African Union Summit in Kampala, in Uganda, which ended yesterday, 27 July, (see Fides 26/7/2010). However the Summit agenda was dominated by the civil war in Somalia, a terrorist alarm in north-west Africa (following the murder of French hostage by self-proclaimed Al Qaida in Muslim Maghreb) and discussions over an International Penal Court mandate for the arrest on charges of genocide of the Sudanese president Omar El Bashir.
Islamic terrorism, with its connections in Somalia and the Maghreb, overturned the Summit agenda with a double attack, for which Somali Shabab claimed responsibility, perpetrated in Kampala on 11 July, two weeks before the opening of the AU meeting in the capital of Uganda, which has 3.500 men in the AU Mission in Somalia (Amisom) and shelters a sizeable community of Somali refugees, helped to put at the centre of the Summit the problem of Somalia, already reproved by the member countries of IGAD (Inter-government Authorities for Development, composed of east African countries), which requested reinforcements for Amisom. The AU Summit agreed to send 4,000 more soldiers. Amison at present comprises 6,000 men (3,500 Ugandans and 2,500 Burundians). IGAD countries is expected to send 2,000 men, Guinea Conakry has promised a battalion (about 800 soldiers) and Djibouti will also an unspecified number of troops. The United States, which already supplies Amisom with logistic and financial support, promised to give more help to the African mission in Somalia. The president of the AU Commissioner, Jean Ping, announced that a decision has been reached to lift the limit of 8,000 men in the composition of Amisom. This means if other African countries wanted to send troops, Amisom could have as many as 10-15,000 military.
The death of the French hostage in the hands of Al Qaida in Islamic Maghreb was condemned by the AU Commissioner for peace and security, Ramtane Lamamra. The AU asked the Commission for peace and security to present proposals to reinforce anti-terrorism coordination among its members.
With regard to Sudan, the AU member countries expressed “concern for the behaviour” of the Procurator of the IPC, International Penal Court in The Hague, Louis Moreno Campo, and his
“ unacceptable and impolite declarations regarding the case of the President of Sudan El Bashir and other situations in Africa”. The AU rejected a request from the IPC to open a communications office in Africa. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 28/7/2010)