The Zimbabwe crisis deteriorates

The 12th ordinary summit of the African Union (AU) will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia between January 26 and February 3, 2009 under the theme of ‘Infrastructure development in Africa’. According to the Centre for Citizen’s Participation in the AU (CCP-AU), the summit will likely be dominated by issues related to: peace and security in Sudan, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea and Djibouti; the union government – a topic to which a one day extra-ordinary summit is devoted; the draft social policy framework of the AU; the election of a new Chairman of the Union to replace the outgoing Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete; the impact of the global financial crisis on Africa.

In other news, the Chairman of the AU Commission said he will not consider sending troops to Zimbabwe to address the humanitarian and political crisis until all diplomatic channels are exhausted. Meanwhile, the Commission of the AU, deeply concerned over the devastating cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe, has donated 100,000 dollars to the country as a contribution to tackle the epidemic.

A group of 26 countries in east, central and southern Africa launched ‘The African Climate Solution’ at the UN climate change talks in Poland that aims to reduce green house gas emissions by forest resources and carbon sequestration through agriculture, forestry and land use in Africa and throughout the developing world. Participants at the talks were negotiating a new global climate change deal to be clinched in Copenhagen, Denmark, at the end of 2009. The AU Commission signed a memorandum of understanding with the International Food Policy Research Institute aimed at strengthening food security by providing a better framework to find solutions to food security issues, poverty alleviation, hunger and malnutrition.

Meanwhile, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, at its 44th ordinary session, adopted a resolution calling on African States to observe a moratorium on the death penalty as a step towards making the AU a death penalty-free continent. In other news, the AU is planning to set up a communal fund, held by the African Development Bank and open to contributions from international donors and African governments, to pay for education, science and technology programmes on the continent.

Finally, the University of Cambridge has issued a call for papers on the theme of ‘Contemporary India-East Africa relations: shifting terrains of engagement’ as part of a collaborative project between the British Institute in Eastern Africa and the British Association of South Asian Studies.