Xing Qu, who spoke at the opening ceremony of the 3rd edition of the Pan-African Forum for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence – Luanda Biennial, said that in UNESCO's ongoing efforts to build peace in Africa and beyond, Angola is a country that counts, given its history and experience.
According to the deputy director of UNESCO, Angola, devastated by thirty years of civil war, can now speak of the benefits of a return to peace, based on its strong tradition of openness to other cultures and religions.
"By organizing this new edition of the Luanda Biennial, with the African Union and UNESCO, Angola is reconciling itself with its past and its present. I congratulate its organizers, especially His Excellency the President of Angola, for point the way to a culture of peace. In this noble and necessary task, you can count on the full support of UNESCO", he highlighted.
The official highlighted that Africa is one of UNESCO's global priorities, along with gender equality, expressing the deep commitment to building peace on this continent, through education, carrying out programs to prevent violent extremism throughout Africa.
In his speech, the president of the African Union (AU) commission, Moussa Mahmat, said that Africa is faced with security challenges, combating terrorism and violent extremism, so it must return to its initial values, education.
"It is no coincidence that Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab are opposed to schools, because these organizations know that to end their actions, all they need to do is educate young people, which is why the AU has drawn up an education strategy for 2017-2025", he said.
Moussa Mahmat stressed that Angola suffered from war and built peace, which is why President João Lourenço was designated by his peers as Champion of the African Union for Peace and Reconciliation in Africa.
President João Lourenço, in his opening speech, also expressed concern about the current bleak international scenario, as a result of the war between Israel and Hamas, and the one between Russia and Ukraine.
According to João Lourenço, both, as a whole or even separately, constitute a serious and unequivocal threat to international security and world peace, with all the consequences that arise in their human, social, economic and political dimensions.
"Due to these problems, it occurs to us to draw the conclusion that it is necessary, with the utmost urgency, to improve the mechanisms of global governance, in order to reinforce their prevention and intervention capacity and not allow political tensions degenerate into major armed confrontation", he said.
The head of state also spoke of "the human tragedy that is being observed in Gaza, faced with a kind of impotence on the part of the international community, which has shown itself incapable of acting with firmness and determination to stop the mutilation and death of thousands of defenseless human beings and innocent people in that part of the Middle East".
"This conflict only has one possible solution, which is necessarily based on the creation of the Palestinian State, under the various United Nations Security Council resolutions on the matter", he pointed out.
