African leaders discuss peace and security in closed meeting

CAIRO - 11 February 2019: President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi chaired on Monday the third closed meeting of the African Union Assembly of Head of State and Government held during the 32nd African Union Summit.

The meeting’s agenda consisted of the endorsement of draft legal documents, the candidacy of member states for the membership of the union’s agencies and committees, and the time and place of the 33rd AU summit.

On the second and last day of the two-day summit, President Sisi will hand out on Monday the Kwame Nkrumah Awards for Scientific Excellence. The president will also deliver the final statement of the summit, and then, hold a joint press conference with Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki.

The second closed meeting took place on Sunday evening to discuss the report on the status of peace and security on the continent, certain crises in Africa, and the efforts to develop the structure of African peace and security. Recently, some countries achieved a milestone in crises resolution such as the cases of the Democratic Republic of Congo which experienced political problems, and the Horn of Africa which experienced disagreements between its countries.

The developments of the 2020 Silence the Gun initiative were also displayed in the meeting. The initiative is backed by a vision to achieve development as basis for stability and ending conflicts on the continent.

President Sisi pointed out to the terrorist threats that had grown in different African areas, and presented Egypt’s experience of counterterrorism. Sisi asserted that the cohesion of the national institutions in African states, and the solidification of security cooperation between them would undoubtedly deter all terrorist entities endemic in the continent.

In January 2018, President Sisi was elected to chair the AU for one year-term in 2019, and received the chairmanship from his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame on Sunday in the opening session of the 32nd AU Summit having as theme refugees and displaced persons.