AU Says Committed To Fighting Terrorism

ADDIS ABABA, Xinhua: Africa is working with all concerned parties to address the scourge of terrorism, its root causes and structural drivers, a senior African Union (AU) official has said.

“We see drones flying across battle lines on the continent. Terrorism is spreading across many African countries. Indeed all our regions are facing the scourge of terrorism and violent extremism,” AU Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security Bankole Adeoye told reporters in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.

Noting that the use of new technologies has aggravated many of the conflicts in Africa, the commissioner said terrorism remains a huge challenge and Africa is being touted as the epicenter of global terrorism.

“We see a lot of improvement in the counter-terrorism efforts, even though the terrorists are still very, very active,” he said. “We are not denying this challenge.” “We are working together to make sure that collectively we can defeat terrorism in all its forms,” Adeoye said, citing the success achieved in defeating terrorism in all its forms in Somalia.

The AU is investing more in conflict prevention, mediation and early warning to improve the security situations on the continent, he said. Adeoye noted that the AU Commission has appointed for the first time a special envoy on the prevention of mass atrocities and genocide on the continent.

“We do not condone crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide, or ethnic cleansing on our continent,” he said. “We have the full backing in our legal norms that these crimes would not be tolerated.”