African leaders meet in summit dogged by Libya

African leaders opened a two-day summit yesterday overshadowed by the conflict in Libya, with rebel representatives invited for talks and criticism of an international arrest warrant for Col Gaddafi.

Heads of state tasked with finding a solution to the fighting met late into the night on Wednesday after announcing at the weekend that Col Gaddafi had agreed not to take part in negotiations.

Criticism of the International Criminal Court warrant and supply of weapons, after France’s announcement that it had air-dropped arms to the rebels, followed African leaders’ complaints about the Nato-led air raids in Libya.

“It complicates the situation,” African Union Commission chairman Jean Ping told reporters of the warrants for atrocities for Col Gaddafi, one of his sons and his intelligence chief.

The Libyan minister for African Union affairs Joma Ibrahim Amer said he had come to the summit for African Union support, with his regime backing the roadmap.

A delegation from the rebels’ Transitional National Council, which has rejected talks unless Col Gaddafi quits, was also at the meeting.

The African Union’s refusal to publicly back calls for the continent’s longest ruler to step down is part of its diplomacy of persuasion that could be undermined by bold statements against him, a diplomat said.

But there is division among the delegates, with some firmly backing the man who has funded many African causes, from conflicts to development, and held the rotating presidency of the African Union just two years ago.

Others say it is time for him to go. “He has to leave. No one wants to say it because he has financed more than one of them,” said a member of one delegation on condition of anonymity.

Containing flaring tensions in Sudan ahead of the south of the country’s independence on July 9 will be another task for the African leaders.

The uprisings in Tunisia that spread to Egypt, Libya and elsewhere have been followed by a wave of demonstrations in sub-Saharan countries like Burkina Faso, Senegal and Swaziland and appear to have rattled others like Zimbabwe.

The official theme of the summit is youth development, seen as vital to containing social discontent on a continent wracked by chronic poverty, even in the oil-rich states like Equatorial Guinea.

“You see the youth just standing around in the villages. Anybody can use them for their own purposes – they must be constructively engaged,” said delegate Thelma Awori from the Femmes Africa Solidarité civil society group.

“The leaders are also looking for home-grown ways of addressing the chronic poverty conditions in which the continent finds itself, issues of unemployment, issues of protecting the environment,” said UNAIDS senior adviser Djibril Diallo.

African Union

• Set up in July 2002 to replace the Organisation of African Unity. Comprises 53 states and territories – all of the continent's nations except Morocco and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, which most countries including Morocco do not recognise.

• Headquartered in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. Web site at www.africa-union.org

• Flag: Green, gold and white, with an emblem showing the map of the continent surrounded by palm leaves.

• Anthem begins: 'Let us all unite and celebrate together / The victories won for our liber-ation'.

• Main institutions: Assembly of Heads of State and Government, Executive Council, Pan-African Parliament, Peace and Security Council.

• Military peacekeeping operations in Sudan, Somalia.

• In Sudan the AU is part of the joint UN-AU mission trying to bring stability to the Darfur region. The force is the UN's largest mission with more than 20,000 soldiers and police. It was deployed there in January 2008, with the UN taking over control from an AU force of 7,000.

• The AU last year requested boosting its 8,000-strong force in Somalia, tasked with protecting Somalia's weak transitional government from Shebab insurgents, to 12,000. Forces mainly from Burundi and Uganda.

• Members: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.