Africa: Booming and enterprising population - UN Chief | United Nations

Remarks by António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, at the 38th Ordinary session of the Assembly of the Heads of state and Government of the African Union.

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Addressing the African Union (AU) Summit Secretary-General António Guterres said, “the international community must come together to stop the flow of weapons and the bankrolling of bloodshed” in Sudan, and stressed that in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) “regional escalation must be avoided at all costs.”

Speaking at the African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, amid conflict and tensions in several AU member states, the Secretary-General said, "the world must never forget that Africa is the victim of two colossal and compounded injustices.”

First, Guterres said, “the profound impact of colonialism and the trans-Atlantic slave trade,” which roots “stretch back centuries and the bitter fruit continues to affect Africans and people of African descent to this day."

Second, he noted "Africa was under colonial domination when today’s multilateral system was created -- and that injustice endures.”

The Secretary-General stressed that there was “no excuse that Africa still lacks permanent representation in the 21st century."

Sudan, he said, “is being torn apart before our eyes -- and is now home to the world’s largest displacement crisis and famine.”

In the DRC, Guterres continued, “the Congolese people have been suffering – yet again – from a brutal cycle of violence. And the fighting that is raging in South Kivu – as a result of the continuation of the M23 offensive -- threatens to push the entire region over the precipice.

He called for “justice” when it comes to Africa’s critical minerals and said, “too often, your countries are plundered – bound to the bottom of value chains – as others grow rich on your resources.”

The Secretary-General stressed, “Africa’s minerals must benefit Africa’s people."

At a later press encounter, the UN Chief told reporters that in the DRC, "the risks of regional expansion are very high at the present moment, since the offensive into Bukavu, welcoming the “important things that were agreed and now need to be put in place,” namely the neutralization of the FDLR, the retreat of the Rwandan forces, “and at the same time, to have diplomacy and dialogue guaranteeing that the territorial integrity of the Democratic Republic of Congo is maintained."

Asked about the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, he said, "it would be inconceivable that the war would start in Gaza again. The suffering of the Palestinian people would be absolutely intolerable. So, our objective now, supporting Qatar, supporting Egypt, supporting the efforts that the United States also have recently, is to make sure that the war does not start again and that phases two and three of the negotiations are successful."

Guterres said, "obviously, we have a problem in the United Nations, and that problem is related to the geopolitical divides, and the geopolitical divides make the Security Council most times ineffective when we have serious crises. And so, it's very difficult for the UN, with a paralyzed Security Council, to play an effective role in relation to the solution of many of the conflicts that we have in the world. And that is why the reform of the Security Council is so important, and that is why I insisted once again today, for that reform."

The theme of this year’s Summit is – Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations.