(Nice, France – May 31, 2010) The 25th Africa-France Summit is underway in Nice, France declared the year 2010 as the Year of Peace and Security for Africa.
In yesterday’s session, foreign ministers including Somalia’s minister for foreign Affairs, Ali Ahmed Jama (Jengeli), produced a draft document that will be deliberated and adopted this afternoon by the assembly of Heads of State and Government.
Among the issues that are of particular importance to Somalia is France’s pledge to provide three hundred million euros, in the years 2010 – 2012, for the peacekeeping force of the African Union, known as the African Standby Force. France also promised to train 12 thousand peace keeping forces for the African Union. Somalia, as a fragile State struggling to restore stability with the help of the African Union will be the foremost beneficiary of both initiatives.
According to the draft declaration, the leaders of Africa and France also agreed, “to tackle together transnational threats. They recognized that poverty and underdevelopment stroke conflicts and political instability creating the ideal conditions for transnational threats, such as terrorism, acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea …”
The gathering also stressed, “How important it was to support post-conflict countries in their efforts to further stability and rehabilitation, particularly in the areas affected by war and to encourage their initiatives to stimulate development and poverty eradication, through the creation of development fund.”

Communications Directorate

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