President Emmerson Mnangagwa arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, last night, for the 38th Ordinary Session of the African Union.
The Zimbabwe leader was received at Bole International Airport by Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister, Professor Amon Murwira, Zimbabwe’s Permanent Representative to the AU Commission, Sophia Nyamudeza and Ethiopia’s Minister of Transport and Logistics, Dr Alemu Sime, per state media.
The 38th Ordinary Session of the African Union is running under the theme, “Justice for Africans and people of African descent through reparations”.
“We believe that this is a very important topic for us, especially us as Zimbabwe after having gone through a gruelling phase of our liberation struggle and facing a lot of adversity in the process.
“We believe that Africa has to talk about that topic, it has to have a position on that topic because it is a just topic for Africa,” Prof Murwira said.
According to Murwira, Mnangagwa will have a series of bilateral engagements on his capacity as SADC Chairperson.
“(President Mnangagwa) is the Chairman of the SADC region, and in that capacity, it gives him more responsibilities.
“So, we are looking forward to his coming here and sharing with his colleagues the future plans for Africa,” Murwira said.
Leaders will also hold an emergency session today over the DRC Crisis which has seen the M23 armed group seizing large parts of the east of the mineral-rich country.
This emergency session comes hard on the heels of joint summit held recently between SADC and the East African Community in Tanzania to deliberate on the war in the DRC and called for a cessation of hostilities.
At the weekend, Angolan President João Lourenço, will take over the rotating presidency of the AU while a new AU Commission Chair would be chosen by vote.
President Moussa Faki Mahamat of Chad, who is the incumbent, has reached the two-term limit and the trio of Djibouti’s Foreign Minister Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, Kenyan politician Raila Odinga and Madagascar’s ex-foreign minister Mr Richard Randriamandrato is vying to replace him.
The AU Commission chair’s post is reserved for East Africa at the present moment.
