ADDIS ABABA – Saturday, 18 February 2023 (APS) – The works of the 36th African Union Heads of State and Government Summit kicked off on Saturday, in Addis Ababa, with the participation of Prime Minister Aimene Benabderrahmane, in his capacity as representative of the President of the Republic Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
Chairing the opening of this Summit, held under the theme “Speeding up the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA),” the head of AU Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat said that this session comes in an international context marked by the instability fueled by geopolitical conflicts, which had inevitable impact on the African continent.
In addition to, added Moussa Faki, the drop in the economic growth at the global level in the past three years, hence the necessity for the AU’s countries to “give a boost to the new mechanisms likely to ensure solutions to this situation,” while “working on backing solidarity between the States.”
“A situation which is getting worse and worse, especially as some African countries are facing alone the threat of terrorism, pushing us to question the existence of the African solidarity”, he added.
Speeding up the implementation of AfCFTA is among the practical solutions in order to shelter the African continent from these international economic crises, he said, underlining that the African leaders must speed up the achievement of this objective, at least concerning the free movement of people and goods.”