African leaders agreed yesterday to a Libyan-driven push to transform the African Union (AU) and in theory greatly extend its powers.
The change was materialized by morphing the AU’s executive body, the commission, into an “African Authority.”
The draft document adopted at 4am yesterday at the AU summit of heads of state in Sirte, Libya, showed that the new authority would simplify the AU’s structure and boost its power over defense, diplomatic and international trade matters.
The document was viewed as a milestone for the buildup to what Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi has long envisioned as a federal government overseeing a “United States of Africa.”
“The final text reflects everybody’s position,” said Benin’s Foreign Minister Jean-Marie Ehouzou, the only head of state or country delegate to address journalists as the weary-eyed and tightlipped officials trickled out of the conference room after over 15 hours of near-uninterrupted talks.
The Authority would have to resolve doubts voiced by many African leaders about unifying Africa under one government, including concerns about national sovereignty, division of resources and power.
Most African leaders voice support for more unity, but some of the continent’s wealthier nations, led by Nigeria and South Africa, had appeared to be resisting the move. African diplomats say there are worries the new structure could become overbearing, especially if it is led by Qaddafi, who has a long history of intervening throughout Africa.
Ehouzou conceded the final declaration had “provoked quite a few sharp discussions, but I believe the states eventually managed to reach common ground nonetheless.” The draft shows the new Authority will “coordinate the implementation of a common defense policy” as well as the “common position of AU member states during international negotiations.” The Authority is also to hold “the strategic command of an African force in waiting.”
“I believe [African] states are ready to drop a little bit of their sovereignty in favor of the authority,” Ehouzou said.
In practice, however, the wording of the Authority’s new role remained very vague. Ehouzou also confirmed that the changes would have to be first written into the AU’s Constitution before being ratified by the parliament of each of the AU’s 53 member states. The declaration showed that finances related to the change were also to be studied at a later, unspecified date.
Separately, Ehouzou confirmed that the AU’s foreign ministers had adopted a draft decision against the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, but said the heads of states had not had the time to address this and the draft was still not final.
“There can still be a new discussion on this,” Ehouzou said.
Diplomats said the foreign ministers had already changed the original draft decision on Thursday to focus it solely on the case of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is under an arrest warrant by the ICC for crimes against humanity and war crimes in the western Sudan region of Darfur.
African officials said the surprise new draft was circulated by Libya, which is hosting the 13th AU summit of heads of state in Sirte, east of the capital, Tripoli.
The draft says the AU “deeply regrets” that the UN ignored its previous demand for the ICC in The Hague to postpone its arrest warrant against al-Bashir.
In consequence, the draft provides that AU countries “shall not cooperate” with the ICC “for the arrest and surrender” of African indicted personalities. But officials say this wording was later changed by the ministers behind closed doors to specifically mention Sudan’s al-Bashir, rather than all African personalities.
Still, if adopted by heads of states, the common ruling could be a powerful blow to prosecuting African officials for war crimes.
Several African leaders appeared to strongly resist the draft decision.
“Certainly that’s not the position that we take,” Ghana’s Foreign Minister Muhammad Mumuni told reporters.
“For us in Ghana there is absolutely no equivocation at all about our acceptance and respect for the jurisdiction, the integrity and high honor of dignity of the ICC,” he said.
But, Mumuni added, Ghana supports the AU’s call to postpone the “ill-timed” ICC warrant against al-Bashir, which he said imperiled peace efforts in Sudan and could create “a huge power vacuum.”
Ghana is among 30 African countries that are party to the international court. Reed Brody, a spokesman for Human Rights Watch, said the draft decision “basically orders them to flout their legal obligations.”
The draft appeared to contradict assurances by the AU’s executive chairman, Jean Ping, that the AU would not reach hard decisions against the ICC.
FORUM: The Solomon Islands’ move to bar Taiwan, the US and others from the Pacific Islands Forum has sparked criticism that Beijing’s influence was behind the decision Tuvaluan Prime Minister Feletei Teo said his country might pull out of the region’s top political meeting next month, after host nation Solomon Islands moved to block all external partners — including China, the US and Taiwan — from attending. The Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders’ meeting is to be held in Honiara in September. On Thursday last week, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele told parliament that no dialogue partners would be invited to the annual gathering. Countries outside the Pacific, known as “dialogue partners,” have attended the forum since 1989, to work with Pacific leaders and contribute to discussions around
END OF AN ERA: The vote brings the curtain down on 20 years of socialist rule, which began in 2005 when Evo Morales, an indigenous coca farmer, was elected president A center-right senator and a right-wing former president are to advance to a run-off for Bolivia’s presidency after the first round of elections on Sunday, marking the end of two decades of leftist rule, preliminary official results showed. Bolivian Senator Rodrigo Paz was the surprise front-runner, with 32.15 percent of the vote cast in an election dominated by a deep economic crisis, results published by the electoral commission showed. He was followed by former Bolivian president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga in second with 26.87 percent, according to results based on 92 percent of votes cast. Millionaire businessman Samuel Doria Medina, who had been tipped
Outside Havana, a combine belonging to a private Vietnamese company is harvesting rice, directly farming Cuban land — in a first — to help address acute food shortages in the country. The Cuban government has granted Agri VAM, a subsidiary of Vietnam’s Fujinuco Group, 1,000 hectares of arable land in Los Palacios, 118km west of the capital. Vietnam has advised Cuba on rice cultivation in the past, but this is the first time a private firm has done the farming itself. The government approved the move after a 52 percent plunge in overall agricultural production between 2018 and 2023, according to data
ELECTION DISTRACTION? When attention shifted away from the fight against the militants to politics, losses and setbacks in the battlefield increased, an analyst said Recent clashes in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Jubaland region are alarming experts, exposing cracks in the country’s federal system and creating an opening for militant group al-Shabaab to gain ground. Following years of conflict, Somalia is a loose federation of five semi-autonomous member states — Puntland, Jubaland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle and South West — that maintain often fractious relations with the central government in the capital, Mogadishu. However, ahead of elections next year, Somalia has sought to assert control over its member states, which security analysts said has created gaps for al-Shabaab infiltration. Last week, two Somalian soldiers were killed in clashes between pro-government forces and
RSS