Free Trade, Crises In Spotlight As AU Leaders Meet

African leaders meet in Mauritania from Sunday for a two-day summit focusing on free trade, funding, corruption and the continent's many security crises.

Nouakchott, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Jun, 2018 ) :African leaders meet in Mauritania from Sunday for a two-day summit focusing on free trade, funding, corruption and the continent's many security crises.

More than 40 heads of state or government are expected in the capital Nouakchott, joined on Monday by French President Emmanuel Macron, who is expected to make a push for a security initiative in the Sahel.

Rwandan leader Paul Kagame, who holds the presidency of the 55-nation African Union (AU), will make a call to promote free trade.

Currently, African countries only conduct about 16 percent of their business with each other, the smallest amount of intra-regional trade compared to Latin America, Asia, North America and Europe.

But change is in the air.

In March, 44 nations signed a pact in March to create the African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) -- billed as the world's largest in terms of participating countries.

The fruit of two years of negotiations, the CFTA is one of the AU's flagship projects for greater African integration.