Sisi, African leaders unveil Selassie statue: national TV

CAIRO – 10 February 2019: Egypt's President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi has participated with other African leaders to unveil the statue of Emperor Haile Selassie on Sunday, Egypt's national TV reported.

This came on the sidelines of the 32nd summit of the African Union held in Addis Ababa, during which Sisi will officially receive the presidency of the AU from his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame.

Putting up a statue for Selassie comes to recognize the emperor's contribution to the establishment of the Organization of African Union (OAU), according to Ethiopian reports.

In 2012, Ghana's former President John Evans Atta Mills unveiled the statue of Ghana’s first President Kwame Nkrumah in the AU building in Addis Ababa, few months before the former passed away.

The summit, which will be held on February 10-11, is expected to deliberate on several issues, most importantly the sustainable development in the continent in light of “2063 development agenda”, peaceful devolution of power and preservation of peace and security in the continent, Head of the Office of the AU's Legal Counsel (OLC), Namira Negm, told Egypt Today.

Negm pointed out that the African leaders will discuss the reports of the African Peace and Security Council and the implementation of the AU road map set to curb civil armed conflicts in the continent by the end of 2020.

Also, African leaders will study means to implement several common projects and legal agreements in order to boost cooperation between the continent’s states, said Negm. The legal counsel added that the leaders will discuss launching international institutions as sub-organizations for the AU, like the African Space Agency.

Furthermore, the leaders will submit their reports on different topics such as terrorism, education, health and climate change to be discussed during the summit, Negm told Egypt Today.