APA-Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) The African Union Thursday celebrated the 60th founding anniversary of its predecessor Organization of African Unity (OAU) and Africa Day in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.
The celebration also marked Africa Day that commemorated May 25, 1963, when the heads of state from 32 independent African states gathered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopian capital to sign the charter that created the OAU, the first post-independence continental institution.
Addressing the gathering, current Chairperson of the AU and President of the Union of the Comoros, Azali Assoumani, stressed the need for Africa exploit its human potential and huge natural resources in Africa to become one of the major economic powers in the world.
“Our continent has a lot of human potential and huge natural resources that will make the continent one of the major economic powers in the world. We have the capacity but also the obligation to put an end to the crisis of all types faced by the continent in order to sneeringly endeavor to the socio-economic development of Africa,” Assoumani said.
Speaking on the six decades of journey of the African Union, the chairperson said that the organization has achieved tremendous results citing the decolonization of Africa and an end to apartheid in South Africa.
However, Assoumani stressed the need for the African generations to learn lessons from previous mistakes and provide more promising prospects to the continent.
“The unconstitutional changes of power have been increasing over the past years, the internal intra African conflict also terrorism continues to prevail, and consequently, peace, democracy and government of our continent are all threatened in our various regions of our continent,” he added.
Thus, Africa needs to ponder together on the action in order to eradicate poverty, which affects the major part of the population, which is, in fact, an open door for tourism on our continent, the chairperson noted.
MG/abj/APA