ALGIERS, Nov 25 (The African Portal) – Algerian Minister of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs, National Community Abroad, and African Affairs, Ahmed Attaf, said on Tuesday that the African Union-European Union Summit is convened amid an international context marked by extreme turmoil, and tension.
“Our summit convenes today in an international context marked by extreme complexity, turmoil, and tension — a context from whose consequences and repercussions our continent has not been spared. A course of events that truly calls for sounding the alarm,” Attaf said in a speech during the proceedings of the 7th AU-EU Summit devoted to peace, security, and governance in Africa.
“First, to sound the alarm regarding the resurgence of unconstitutional changes of governments in Africa — changes that no longer represent mere temporary reactions to fleeting circumstances, but have become a reality that is spreading and taking root amid the blocked prospects for a return to the desired constitutional order,” he added.
Attaf also highlighted the worsening scourge of terrorism in Africa, which, after receding elsewhere in the world, has made the Sahel region today the global epicenter of this menace “that has spread corruption and crime across African states and peoples, amid an international silence that is difficult to comprehend or explain.”
Additionally, he sounded the alarm over the spread of foreign military interventions in Africa — a phenomenon that has now become a structural factor in the African security landscape, one that complicates crises, prolongs their duration, and undermines the prospects for their peaceful resolution.
Moreover, he warned of the retreat of continental diplomatic engagement and the fading of international attention to Africa’s security and political priorities, which no longer receive the level of importance required on the agenda of multilateral international action.
“In light of this situation, Algeria calls for a reordering of the priorities of the Africa–Europe partnership in the field of peace and security,” the Algerian Minister said, adding that the first priority is directed towards putting an end to the international apathy that Africa’s peace and security issues are suffering from.
“The challenges facing our continent are not merely local or limited in scope, but rather cross-border and cross-continental threats, both in themselves and in their consequences.”
Attaf stated that the second priority should be devoted to restoring the credibility of African diplomatic efforts and to upholding the principle of African solutions to African problems, because the continental organization has already demonstrated its capacity to fulfill its responsibilities whenever it has been given the necessary space to act and the required international support.
According to Algeria, the third priority in the Africa–Europe partnership on peace and security concerns making real and effective investments in development as the best means to prevent crises and address their root causes and developmental dimensions.
“In this context, we look forward to the fulfillment of the investment commitments made by Europe towards Africa under the Global Gateway initiative,” Attaf said.
He added that the fourth priority is a structural one of paramount importance, relating to the necessity of ending Africa’s marginalization in all areas of international decision-making—political, security, and economic. Attaf emphasized that this marginalization remains, in itself, one of the main structural factors undermining Africa’s progress toward realizing its aspirations and objectives enshrined in the Continental Agenda 2063.
Credit: AL24 News
