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President Mugabe is set to take over the chairmanship of the African Union (AU) at its 24th Ordinary Summit which begins in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia today. The two-day summit will be held at the AU headquarters. President Mugabe, who is the union’s first vice chairman, is already in Ethiopia where he has joined other Heads of State and Government.

He takes over the AU chairmanship from President Ould Abdel Aziz of Mauritania. Last year President Mugabe assumed the chairmanship of Sadc. The 24th Ordinary Summit of the AU General Assembly is being held at a time the continent is grappling with a myriad of challenges which include among others, peace and security challenges in the Great Lakes region, North Africa, the eastern DRC and Nigeria where Boko Haram militants continue to abduct women and girls.

The Islamic militants’ group recently attacked the town of Baga and killed more than 2,000 innocent civilians. The continent’s resources continue to be wasted on unnecessary wars that have over the years claimed thousands of innocent lives. Africa is endowed with natural resources which include  minerals such as gold, diamonds,  chrome, copper, nickel platinum and many  others.

It also boasts of oil, game, fish and wood but these resources will not uplift the people’s lives as long as the continent continues to battle civil strife. The resources, instead of being used to improve the people’s livelihoods, are being wasted buying weapons of war. Most conflicts on the continent are as a result of external forces meddling in internal affairs of many African countries.

It is these external forces that are funding these wars that continue to claim thousands of innocent lives. The objective of these external forces is to destabilise African countries in order to create an environment conducive for looting the respective countries’ resources such as minerals and oil.

The AU summit should come up with concrete resolutions on how the continent could tackle conflicts. It is only Africa that can address its own challenges and what is needed is unity of purpose. It is time Africans say no to external forces that are bent on destabilising the continent for their own benefit. President Mugabe is assuming the AU chairmanship at a very crucial time.

Cde Mugabe’s leadership of the continental body can only succeed if he gets full support of fellow Heads of State and Government. African leaders must confront the external enemy as a united front and must refuse to be divided. It is only when the continent enjoys peace and tranquility that it can focus on development to improve the lives of its people. The continent continues to export its resources in their raw form and as a result realises very little. It is this status quo that the continent’s detractors want to perpetuate so that they continue to plunder our resources.

The 24th Summit being held under the theme “Year of Women’s Empowerment and Development towards Africa’s Agenda 2063” should therefore come up with a programme of action to ensure value addition and beneficiation as opposed to exporting raw materials.

We want to once again implore African leaders attending the summit to find a lasting solution to the many unnecessary conflicts that continue to claim lives of innocent people almost daily.