Luanda: Minister of Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has called on African leaders to undertake what he describes as an honest introspection into the underlying causes of conflicts across the continent; leading to unemployment and mass migration. According to him, Africa must urgently end what he described as the normalisation of conflict and extremism if the continent is to achieve its vision of a transformed future.
According to Ghana Web, Ablakwa made this call during his address at the African Union Executive Council's extraordinary meeting on Conflict Resolution and Prevention in Angola. In his speech, he urged African leaders to focus on the fundamental factors that continue to fuel instability and conflict across the continent. He identified injustice, limited opportunities for young people, underdevelopment, corruption, resource exploitation, intolerance, and insincerity as some of the key drivers of conflict.
Ablakwa also cautioned against African countries becoming pawns for proxy forces and called for a redirection of resources used in financing conflicts towards creating employment opportunities for the continent's growing youth population. He highlighted recent scenes of thousands of young Africans attempting to cross into Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in North Africa, as a reminder of the urgent need to address unemployment and other factors driving migration.
The minister stressed the importance of moving beyond addressing the symptoms of conflict and instead confronting the underlying conditions that breed instability across the continent. He emphasized the necessity for African leaders to take immediate action to prevent conflicts and create a new and transformed Africa.