• This week has seen the 10th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of African Heads of State and Government, the AU Summit, 31 January – 2 February 2008. It was preceded by the 12th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council, the meeting of Foreign Ministers, 27-29 January, and accompanied by a number of other meetings among the Heads of State and Government attending the summit. These included the 18th summit of NEPAD Heads of State on Wednesday; an IGAD summit; an extra-ordinary meeting of the foreign affairs ministers of COMESA, the Common Market for East and Southern Africa; the meeting of First Ladies, and the International Contact Group on Somalia. Observers and visitors to Addis Ababa this week have included UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, who addressed the Summit, Miguel Angel Moratinos, Foreign Minister of Spain; Amr Moussa, the Secretary-General of the Arab League; the Foreign Minister of Islamic Republic of Iran, Manouchehr Mottaki; the former Japanese Prime Minister, Yoshiro Mori; the Assistant Foreign Minister of China, Zhai Jun; the UK Minister for Africa, Lord Malloch-Brown; the US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, Jendayi Frazer; and the Executive Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization, Dr. Jacques Diouf.

The Summit opened on Thursday with an address from the retiring AU Chairperson, Dr. Alpha Konare. In a resume of events he noted the reports of the Audit Panel and of the Ministerial Committee on Union Government. These meant, he said, that the Union had reached a transitional phase. It was important to realize that decisions now being taken should enhance the unification process. The report of the Audit Panel was critical of its bureaucracy and painted a picture of a poorly functioning institution which it described as dysfunctional. The report also noted that 21 countries were behind with their payments. Professor Konare spoke of positive developments in Sierra Leone and Liberia and of the need to intensify efforts for peace in the Comoros, Darfur, eastern areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Somalia. He referred to the setting up of a group of eminent Africans, former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, former Tanzanian President, Benjamin Mkapa, and Madame Graca Machel to mediate in Kenya’s crisis. The group is currently at work and the Chairperson invited the Assembly to express support for their efforts. On Friday, President Kibaki of Kenya briefed the Assembly on events in Kenya. The Chairperson noted Africa’s participation at the last G8 Summit in Germany and the renewal of the Africa-EU dialogue at the Lisbon Summit in December. He emphasized the need for accelerating the socio-economic development of Africa, underlining the theme of the Summit “Industrial Development of Africa”. Africa’s share of global manufacturing is still less than 1%. He suggested the Union might consider adoption of the Inga project, which has the potential to generate 40,000 megawatts of energy, and encourage the launch of satellite networks for the continent.

Today, the Assembly considered two reports from the Executive Council, one on the Audit Panel, the other on the report of the Ministerial Committee on the Union Government. On the Audit Panel report, the Assembly decided to accept the proposal of the Executive Council to convene an extraordinary session of the Executive Council to consider the report and the comments of the Commission in March. On the report of the Ministerial Committee on the Union Government, the Assembly decided to elevate the Ministerial Committee to a Committee of Heads of State and Government. The Committee will have ten members, plus the new Chairperson and his predecessor. It will continue the debate on Union Government and how to move the issue forward.

The Summit elected President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania as new Chairperson of the African Union. President Kikwete was elected President of Tanzania in December 2005. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ping, of Gabon, was elected Chairperson of the Africa Commission, with Erstus Mwemcha, of Kenya, former secretary-general of COMESA as his deputy. The Commissioner for the Peace and Security Council will be Ambassador Lamamera of Algeria who is taking over from his countryman, Ambassador Said Djinnit.

The 18th Summit of the NEPAD Head of State and Government Implementation Committee (HSGIC) was held on 30 January. The meeting was opened by Prime Minister Meles, Chairperson of NEPAD HSGIC. It discussed a six month performance report as well as budget issues. The NEPAD Secretariat is facing a considerable deficit with a number of countries in arrears of payment. The Summit agreed to speed up the process of integrating NEPAD in the structure and process of the AU.

Other meetings around the Summit included an IGAD Summit today and an IGAD ministerial meeting earlier in the week. An IGAD Ministerial delegation will be traveling to Nairobi next week. The COMESA Ministers of Foreign Affairs who held an extraordinary meeting on 27 January. The meeting received a progress report on the launch of the COMESA Customs Union due in December 2008, and on the preparations for the 13th Summit of COMESA in Harare in May.

The Organization of African First Ladies held a meeting on Thursday at AU headquarters, focusing on the prevention of gender based violence.

In advance of the AU Summit, the International Contact Group on Somalia held a meeting in the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa for the first time. The ICG has previously provided a forum for discussion; this meeting, however, moved significantly beyond this to plan for concrete assistance to the TFG. It also agreed to expand membership of the group to include all stakeholders. The meeting was given a detailed briefing by Prime Minister Nur Hassan ‘Adde’ on political and security progress as well as the efforts made by his cabinet for reconciliation and dialogue. He emphasized that the Charter and the Transitional Federal Institutions provided a legitimate and viable framework for the process of re-establishing governance structures in Somalia. He detailed his government’s priorities and its action plan to address security, reconciliation, the humanitarian situation, the political road map and institutional development. The ICG welcomed the plans of Prime Minister Nur ‘Adde’. Co-chair Dr. Jendayi Frazer, US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa, presented a proposal to restructure the ICG and strengthen its organization, flexibility and effectiveness. The proposal, accepted by the meeting, included the creation of ‘cluster groups’ to cover humanitarian responses, security and stability, political outreach, and the facilitation of key TFG concerns. Essentially, the proposal provides for a mechanism to support TFG efforts in the implementation of the proposed action plan. ICG members also pledged to co-ordinate their efforts and agreed to avoid the proliferation of initiatives which has had the effect of undermining attempts to solve Somalia’s problems. The meeting underlined the need for a UN deployment in Somalia, to address humanitarian problems, to continue to fight terrorism and piracy, ensure the implementation of the arms embargo, and assist in governance and the provision of social services.

In its subsequent communiqué, on Wednesday, the Contact Group welcomed the appointment of Prime Minister Nur ‘Adde’ and his new cabinet, the relocation of the TFG to Mogadishu, and the deployment of a Burundi battalion for AMISOM. The Burundi battalion has been deployed around the former US embassy compound in Mogadishu. It welcomed the recent release of detainees, including Ahmed Dirie Ali, spokesman for the Hawiye Leadership Council, whom leaders of the opposition Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia, based in Eritrea, claimed had been killed. In its communiqué, the ICG emphasized the need for all Somalis to remain focused on the process leading to national elections next year, and welcomed the commitment of the Prime Minister to political dialogue and the transitional process. It urged all Somali stakeholders to distance themselves from extremist elements. The ICG expressed its concern over the humanitarian situation and reiterated its willingness to help build the capacity of the TFG. It noted that the “full and timely deployment of AMISOM and the strengthening of Somali security institutions will help create conditions for Ethiopia’s withdrawal from Somalia”. The ICG also joined the AU in calling for urgent planning and deployment of a United Nations mission to Somalia to take over from AMISOM. In a joint press statement on Thursday, the then AU Peace and Security Commissioner, Said Djinnit, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Jendayi Frazer, and Norwegian Ambassador Kjell Herald Dalen, underlined that it was time for the international community to redeem the pledges it had made to the Somali peace process.

• As expected the Security Council, in Resolution 1798 on 30 January 2008, extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission to Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE). UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had recommended no more than a month’s technical extension following the increased limitations imposed on UNMEE by the Government of Eritrea and the block on fuel deliveries to the Mission. However, the Security Council, in a unanimously adopted resolution, preferred to extend UNMEE’s mandate by six months, to July 31, 2008. It demanded that Eritrea provide UNMEE with all necessary facilities to carry out its duties and lift all restrictions on fuel shipments. The Security Council once again demanded that Eritrea should immediately withdraw all troops and heavy military equipment from the Temporary Security Zone, and called on Ethiopia to decrease its military forces in areas adjacent to the TSZ. It called on both countries to show maximum constraint, refrain from any threat or use of force, avoid provocative military activities and end the exchange of hostile statements. The Security Council specifically asked both countries to maintain full commitment to the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement, rightly emphasizing that it is Eritrea, and Ethiopia, which bear “the primary responsibility for achieving a comprehensive and lasting settlement of the border dispute and normalizing their relations.” The Government of Ethiopia itself has consistently called for both parties to shoulder these responsibilities and enter into dialogue to break the impasse; the Government of Eritrea has been reluctant to do so. The Security Council strongly supported the efforts of the Secretary-General, and the international community, to engage with Ethiopia and Eritrea to promote stability and “to lay the foundation for a comprehensive and lasting settlement of the dispute”. It urged the two parties to accept the Secretary-General’s “good offices”, and welcomed the Secretary-General’s efforts to appoint a Special Representative, a matter in which the Government of Eritrea has registered strong protests, most recently in a letter to the President of the Security Council earlier this week. The Government of Eritrea has indeed continued to reject all efforts by the Secretary-General to advance the peace process and normalize relations with Ethiopia.

Foreign Minister Seyoum, in a letter to the Secretary-General last week, again reiterated Ethiopia’s full commitment to the Delimitation Decision of 13 April 2002, and to the demarcation of the border according to international norms and practices. The final and binding decision on demarcation is the Delimitation Decision of April 2002. There is no other relevant decision for demarcation. These norms do not, of course, include "virtual demarcation", a legal fiction substituting for real demarcation of the boundary on the ground. Foreign Minister Seyoum drew attention to the imperative need to restore the full integrity of the Algiers Agreements, without which demarcation is impossible. It was following persistent violations of the Algiers Agreements and the Temporary Security Zone that Ethiopia sent formal notification to Eritrea, on September 22 2007, that unless Eritrea returned to compliance with the Agreements, Ethiopia would be obliged to consider all the legal options available to it to ensure that its rightful interests were protected and the purpose of the Algiers Agreements upheld. It is to be recalled that the TSZ was an area captured by Ethiopia in the course of the counter-offensive against Eritrean aggression in May 2000, and later handed over to UN peacekeepers, pursuant to the Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities. This is what is usually overlooked by Eritrea and some others. The TSZ is an area defined by a bilateral treaty even though it remains within Eritrea. Hence the comments by Eritrea in its latest statement, of today, are disingenuous and no more than a half-truth. Eritrea remains in breach of the Agreement on Cessation of Hostilities, completely violating the demilitarized Temporary Security Zone. Ethiopia is justified in expecting the Security Council to take appropriate measures against the party that has violated the provisions of the ceasefire agreement. This is provided for in the Agreement on Cessation of Hostilities. The latest Security Council Resolution does not fully address the concerns of Ethiopia in this regard.

• Prison conditions at the Eiraeiro prison in Eritrea were the subject of a devastating expose this week by Reporters Without Borders. The organization, in a report released on Wednesday, describes Eiraeiro as “a disgrace for Eritrea and Africa”. It asked the leaders attending the AU Summit this week not to turn a blind eye to “the fact that the Eritrean government acts with extraordinary cruelty towards all it regards as a potential threat to its survival”. Quoting information provided by a “first-hand witness”, Reporters Without Borders describes the prison complex in detail and the treatment of the prisoners who include leading political figures among them several former ministers, journalists and others arrested in September 2001, and later. They have all been detained without charge or trial. Kept isolated in windowless cells, lit day and night by electric light, some are chained; torture is frequent. Food and water are rationed; medical treatment minimal. Reporters Without Borders believes that at least nine of the prisoners died during 2006-2007, including several journalists. In its statement Reporters Without Borders recommends that African Union member states and other democratic nations summon the Eritrean ambassadors to express their revulsion at “the inhuman treatment of political prisoners and to request their release”. It also suggests they should demand an end to “the extortion practiced by Eritrean embassies” by which all Eritreans living abroad are forced to hand over at least 2% of their earnings to the embassy in order to be able to return home, own property in Eritrea or even send packages to Eritrea. Reporters Without Borders also wants the EU to adopt targeted sanctions against “those officials responsible for repression and prison camps”, listing ten people whom it suggests should at least be banned from visiting EU countries.

• Spain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Miguel Angel Moratinos, in Addis Ababa on a bilateral visit this week, paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Meles who noted the need to strengthen Ethiopian-Spanish bilateral relations. Minister Moratinos, who commended the remarkable changes Ethiopia had achieved in recent years, and its role in providing stability in the Horn of Africa, and spoke of the interest of his Government to work together with Ethiopia in the fight against international terrorism. During bilateral meetings with Foreign Minister Seyoum and other officials, agreements were signed to provide 30 million Euro in development aid to facilitate the implementation of MDGs projects in Ethiopia. At a luncheon in honor of Mr. Moratinos, Foreign Minister Seyoum noted the rapid development in Spanish Ethiopian relations, and of the excellent political relations to provide a basis for further and effective cooperation. Minister Seyoum said Ethiopia hoped ties between Africa and Spain would continue to grow, and he assured Mr. Moratinos that Ethiopia would be a strong advocate of a closer partnership between Africa and Spain. Mr. Moratinos’ successful visit suffered a slight hiccup at departure. Although seen off by Minister Seyoum, his plane was unable to leave the airport. Unfortunately too many VIP planes with Heads of State and Government chose to arrive at just the same time for the AU Summit. Mr. Moratinos was forced to wait for an hour and a half before his plane could take off.

• This week, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi held separate discussions with investors engaged in floriculture and the leather industry. He said the Government was determined to expand production and increase the quantity of exported flowers. He said the Government would provide the backing necessary including a search for more markets to boost revenues from the sector. He thought possible new destinations could be Russia, Japan and other Far East countries. The Government was also preparing incentives for those interested to develop floriculture and it would address any difficulties or setbacks in land acquisition and credit supplies. Short and long term training courses will also be organized to tackle the scarcity of skilled manpower in the sector.

• Similarly, following last weekend’s All Africa Leather Fair, held here in Addis Ababa, the Prime Minister met private sector investors, who have been demanding more support to help keep up the momentum of the current growth evident in the sector. Prime Minister Meles emphasized the need to raise productivity and the competitive edge of the commodity in the international market. Investors said contributions by Government are crucial in creating new market opportunities through the introduction of improved leather products. Issues related to new markets, capacity building and finance were at the centre of their discussions. Investors cited as major challenges deterioration in the quality of hides and skin as well as slow development and insufficient returns from exports. They said improvement in the internal structure and the hiring of qualified instructors for the Leather and Leather Products Technology Institute could take care of the shortage of skilled manpower. Equally, real incentives needed to be put in place if more foreign investors were to be attracted to boost production and generate income from the sector. The Prime Minister made it clear that the Government was committed to address constraints and create new market opportunities.

• Ethiopia is expecting another bumper harvest for the fourth consecutive year according to a recent Crop and Food Assessment Mission report from the Food and Agricultural Organization and the World Food Programme. Cereal and pulse production from the current 2007/08 meher season is estimated at 21.5 million tons, a seven percent increase on the final 2006 post-harvest estimate. The increase is put down to the greater use of fertilizer, improved seeds, and minimal damage from pests and diseases, together with a significant expansion in cultivated area. The last five years have been characterized by a steady growth of the Ethiopian economy, with real GDP growth averaging well over 11 percent per year. This improved performance in the agricultural sector, as in the previous year, coupled with the sustained effort of the government to concentrate on poverty-targeted investments, including the sectors of road construction, education and agriculture, have encouraged a broad based expansion of the economy. There’s been substantial growth in export earnings in recent years, partly due to the rise in the volume of exports, and partly to the revival in prices in the world market. The overall food situation, says the report, is highly favorable, with an increase in food availability matched to greater access for large numbers of the vulnerable.

• This week, the Executive Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization, Dr. Jacques Diouf, and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Addisu Legesse, inaugurated a new FAO sub-regional office for Eastern Africa in Addis Ababa. The new office will serve as an advisory service centre for Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. FAO is in the process of extending its decentralization. The newly opened office will serve the 200 million inhabitants of the countries of the sub-region several of which have high agricultural potential. FAO Director General, Dr.Jacques Diouf, was in Ethiopia on a six day working visit. He attended the 10th Ordinary session of the Assembly of the African Union, and had talks with Deputy Prime Minister Addisu Legesse. Dr. Diouf expressed FAO's desire to strengthen and complement the sub-region's own capacities. He noted that quite apart from its production for home consumption, Ethiopia's agricultural exports, including flowers, had contributed a lot to the growth of the national economy. Ethiopia, he said, had registered "very important progress" in agriculture. Indeed, FAO now plans, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, to celebrate Ethiopia's achievements in the sector on the annual World Food day. Deputy Prime Minister Addisu assured the Executive Director of FAO that Ethiopia was committed to support FAO in all its undertakings, and help it discharge its responsibilities in the sub-region effectively. He underscored the need to closely work with FAO to achieve Ethiopia’s MDGs.