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that want to use force to quell conflicts in the continent should intervene with approval from Africa, chairperson of the African Union and President of Equatorial Guinea Mr Teodoro Obiang Nguema has warned.
President Nguema said this while officially opening the 17th ordinary summit of Heads of State and Government here yesterday.

He said decisions taken after the 16th ordinary summit that was held in January this year concerning conflict resolution had become useless and “completely forgotten as the continent is being replaced by external agents that have no intention of dialogue and do not appreciate the African spirit and will.”

TEODORO Obiang Nguema Mbasogo

• AU calls for end to Nato bombings

President Nguema indirectly attacked the Nato invasion of Libya and the actions of some Western countries led by the US in perpetrating problems in the Arab country.
He said peace and security “in our states” could not be guaranteed with theoretical policy formulations for democracy and freedom of expression.

President Mugabe is among several Heads of State and Government from the continent attending the summit.
Said president Nguema: “The last discussions adopted by the 16th ordinary summit in January this year concerning conflict resolution have become useless, completely forgotten.

“Africa has always been and is being replaced by external agents that have not even the intention of dialoguing to know and appreciate the African spirit and will.”
“Africa does not aspire to resolve European, Asian or American problems, but to solve it’s own problems.

Africa has neither been a conqueror, colonising nor an exploiting continent. Its struggle has always been to shake off and reject these ideas or policies that victimise and subjugate Africa and his people . . .”
As a result of these imposing policies, the interventions for human rights are nowadays causing massive scourge to mankind in various parts of the world.

Hence, the uncounted number of victims, among them women and children displaced people and destruction of economic infrastructure do not justify such interventions.
Instead, of giving solutions to problems, we are thus complicating and worsening world conflicts.

“The desire of Africa is that outside countries and organisations that have the power to use force should not intervene in the solutions of African problems without a consensus with Africa because they might incur in the violation of international law on sovereignty of States.”

President Nguema said the AU had never pleaded for war but for dialogue in finding solutions to African conflicts, adding that war “produces ill-fated and destructive effects.”
He said the continent welcomed moves aimed at solving conflicts in Sudan and Somalia and went on to urge the parties involved to respect the agreed terms.

“The peace and security of our states cannot only be guaranteed with theoretical policy formulations for democracy, freedom of expression and other theories; which allegedly guarantee political rights, since the stability of a country basically depends on the availability of economic resources that sustain the lives of it’s people, which enable access to education, health facilities, potable water, environmental development and other conditions that sustain the standard of living and dignifies human beings,” he said.

Turning to the theme of the summit: “Accelerating Youth Empowerment for Sustainable Development”, President Nguema, said it was beyond doubt that youths were the legitimate heirs of the future of continent.
“For us, the youth do not mean any problem for society, although many negative theories believe that youth constitute an economic problem for human feeding while others state that the youth are a danger to preserve cultural values.

“However, it is advisable here to call on the attention of those agents accustomed to manipulate the innocence and good faith of the youth and inexperienced population to unnecessarily cause sterile revolutions with no purposes other that individualised political ambitions.”