African leaders gathers in Addis Abeba for annual summit

• African leaders are gathering in Addis Abeba.
• To revive a stalled trade agreement and address urgent issues.
• Such as armed conflict and food crisis.

African leaders are gathering in Addis Abeba for an annual summit with the goal of reviving a stalled trade agreement while also concentrating on the most urgent issues facing the continent, such as armed conflict and a rising food crisis.

The two-day African Union (AU) meeting in Ethiopia will aim to address these issues and speed up a free-trade agreement launched in 2020 as the continent struggles with a record-breaking drought in the Horn of Africa and deadly violence in the Sahel region and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), which unites 54 of the 55 African nations—Eritrea being the lone holdout—is advertised as the largest in the world in terms of population.

With the abolition of nearly all tariffs, the AfCFTA seeks to increase commerce between African countries by 60 percent by 2034 from the current level of just approximately 15 percent of products and services.

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However, due to obstacles including arguments over tariff reductions and border closures brought on by the COVID-19 outbreak, implementation has fallen far short of that objective.

The majority of the summit’s proceedings will take place in secret at the AU’s headquarters in the capital of Ethiopia.

In the Sahel and the eastern DRC, where the M23 armed group has captured large portions of territory and created a diplomatic row between Kinshasa and Rwanda, which is accused of supporting the rebels, the summit will place a major emphasis on trying to secure ceasefires.

In order to confront escalating violence and advance democratic freedoms on the continent, according to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Africa needs to take “action for peace.”

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