RPT: PREVIEW - African Union Heads Of State Summit To Begin On Sunday With Focus On Forced Displacement

Sumaira FH Published February 10, 2019 | 10:03 AM

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th February, 2019) The 32nd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) will begin on Sunday in Ethiopia and will fall under the theme "The Year of Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons: Towards Durable Solutions to Forced Displacement in Africa."

The two-day session will bring together participants at the AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa.

The African Union's 55 member states decided on the theme of this year's summit at the previous session of the AU Assembly in Mauritania in July. The African Union justified the chosen theme by the organization's developing comprehensive normative frameworks, governing forced displacement to address the problems of 6.3 million refugees and 14.5 million internally displaced persons, hosted by the continent.�

The leaders of the African states will hold a variety of sessions during the summit to exchange views on such issues as the AU institutional reform, peace and security, and the establishment of new AU legal instruments. In addition, separate sessions will be held, during which AU thematic committees will present their reports.

Discussion sessions will be punctuated by working lunches.

Apart from the statutory meeting of the African Union, a range of side events organized by participating governments will be held both within and outside the confines of the AU headquarters. Prior to the opening session of the summit, the leaders of the AU states will gather to witness the inauguration of the statue of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie. Other side events are dedicated to environmental and humanitarian issues pertinent to the African continent.

Attendees of the summit will also witness the signing of the peace agreement on the Central African Republic (CAR), reached in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, during week-long negotiations and initialed by government representatives and armed groups on Tuesday, as announced by a car government spokesman on Thursday.

The closing ceremony of the summit will be guided by a new chairperson of the African Union, who will replace Rwandan President Paul Kagame, currently assuming the post, for a one year term. The next chair should be chosen from another region of Africa.