New AU chief wants Africa’s debt cancelled

• UN’s Scribe demands peace as ACFTA falters
• Some 339 million Africans in urgent need

Sopuruchi Onwuka

Some 339 million of Africa’s 1.4 billion population are in acute need of humanitarian aid as tribes are locked in mortal wars and governments in the continent sink in debilitating debts that are extortionate in nature.

Both the incoming Chairman of the African Union, President Azali Assoumani of Comoros, and the General Secretary of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, have decried rising debts, failing democracy and armed conflicts as key inhibitors of trade cooperation aimed at cutting cost of living for the citizens of the continent.

The AU summit which ended last weekend was aimed to strengthen the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) launched in 2020 but has not been able to cause significant progress in trade among African countries.

The AfCFTA aims to boost intra-African trade from prevailing 15 percent to 60 percent by 2034 by eliminating almost all tariffs; but implementation has fallen well short of that goal, with governments at odds over tariff reductions.

Lack of cooperation among the African nations is exacerbated by intra- and inter-country conflicts, commitments to different terms of external loans and rising junta governments in the continent.

Conflicts in the continent, analysts point out, feed from floating bandits and mercenaries in the African Sahel region. But the young gangs of merciless killers are usually recruited by politicians and tribal rulers to attack neigbours.

In seeking measures to promote cooperation and address immediate survival need of millions of people affected by conflicts and food shortages in the continent, the weekend meeting by Heads of State explored ceasefire in the Sahel region and in Congo.

Whereas the Sahel bandits have fought hard to destabilize countries like Niger, Mali, Nigeria, Cameroon and Burkina Faso; the M23 rebels have seized swathes of territory and sparked a diplomatic row between Kinshasa and Rwanda’s government, which is accused of backing the rebels.

Leaders of the seven-nation East African Community pat the weekend demanded all armed groups to cease fire and withdraw from occupied areas in the eastern DRC by the end of next month.

United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, urged African leaders to take “action for peace” as the only path to realizing regional and continental economy programmes such as the ACFTA.

“I am deeply concerned about the recent rise in violence by armed groups in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and the rise of terrorist groups in the Sahel and elsewhere,” he told Heads of Government attending the summit.

He also pointed at debt burden on the continent without necessarily blaming political leaders that have led their countries into debt abyss that worsened living standards of millions of vulnerable Africans.

The UN Scribe stated that global financial systems are extortionate, dysfunctional and unfair in offering African countries the debt relief and concessional financing they need.

Incoming Chairman of AU, Azali Assoumani, who takes over from Senegal’s Macky Sall, also pointed at the need for debt relief for Africa. He in fact called for “total cancellation” of African debt.

In amplifying the plight of the vulnerable in the continent, Guterres announced release of $250 million from the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund to support those at risk of famine in the areas of the continent affected by drought.

He said 339 million people were in need of humanitarian aid, up 25 percent on last year.

In playing on the theme of failing democracy in the continent, the conference considered strategies for relating with non-democratic governments in the continent; insisting that the bloc needed new strategies to counter the backsliding of democracy.

“In some countries, hard-won democratic gains are disappearing,” Guterres warned.

Governments in reference including Junta-ruled Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea, whose leaders could not participate in this weekend’s summit but sent diplomats, lobbied for lifting of their countries’ suspension from the AU and appealed for readmission.