João Lourenço, who traveled to Senegal on Sunday at the invitation of his Senegalese counterpart, Macky Sall, spoke this Monday at the Peace and Security Forum, which takes place in Dakar under the motto: "Africa in the face of exogenous shocks: stability challenges and sovereignty".
"This spirit is always present and now with increased responsibilities for having been granted to us by Your Excellencies at the Malabo Summit, in May of this year, the task of promoting actions and initiatives that contribute to the strengthening of understanding and national reconciliation at the continent", said João Lourenço.
The Head of State considered it important to work in a more coordinated way with regional organizations and the African Union, so that the initiatives that may be undertaken lead to effective results capable of helping to restore confidence, peace and tranquility, order and security necessary for Africa's progress and development.
According to João Lourenço, conflicts of a different nature and origin prevail in all regions of the African continent, which must be reversed "at all costs".
The President acknowledged that there are important initiatives that are being developed at the regional and continental level, with the aim of contributing to the cessation of conflicts that still persist, highlighting those that have been undertaken by the different regional organizations.
"We highlight here the actions that have been undertaken within the scope of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (CIRGL), a practical mechanism that has worked well and has proved to be useful in terms of monitoring the problems that afflict the sub-region. Central African region, namely the border conflict between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, between Uganda and Rwanda, and what remains in the Central African Republic", he pointed out.
João Lourenço expressed "with some hope that, despite the fact that there are still some worrying occurrences, there are also encouraging signs regarding the probability of restoring trust between the parties and, depending on this climate, giving continuity to the dialogue initiated between the fraternal countries involved in the pacification process taking place in the sub-region".
The situation of terrorism in Mozambique, in the countries of the Horn of Africa and in the Sahel Region, as well as the successive coups d'état in the countries of West Africa "which, unfortunately, have not always found a vigorous response to discourage the continuation of such practices that seriously violate the Charter of the African Union, the Constitution and the basic principles of democracy in the countries concerned, were also listed by João Lourenço.
"This practice does not constitute a solution to any internal problem that prevails in each of our countries, and must deserve a vigorous reaction from all of us, based on a zero tolerance policy, in relation to institutions and figures emerging from coups d'état", defended the President. angolan
According to João Lourenço, "unconstitutional changes, even where there is no bloodshed, cannot be seen as something normal and wait for the will of the putschists to return to constitutional normality, when and if the putschists thus understand it".
"The armed conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia cannot be forgotten, it must continue to deserve our permanent attention, it must remain on our agenda until definitive peace is reached", he stressed.
In his speech, the issue of food security in Africa was also highlighted by the President, "because it is an important component of peace and security".
"The shortage of food and water for human consumption has several causes that our Governments try to overcome with different projects and programmes. However, severe drought in some regions of the continent causes real humanitarian catastrophes, as happens seasonally in some Sahel countries, in Somalia and part of Kenya, to name just these", he stressed.
