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/ 9 September 2005
The African Union (AU) has urged the last active rebel group in Burundi to join the peace process aimed at ending more than a decade of devastating fighting in the impoverished central African nation. In addition, AU said the international community should sustain its support in order to consolidate achievements in Burundi’s democratisation process.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on Thursday urged divided African leaders to forge a consensus on United Nations reform to keep the continent from losing out if the UN Security Council is expanded. The African Union opened a one-day summit aimed at overcoming rifts on how many seats should be added to the council, among other issues.
Africa will dominate the United Nations Security Council agenda in July. The 15-nation body, under the presidency of Greek ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis, will discuss the Ethiopia and Eritrea boundary deadlock. Later in the month it will hear oral evidence on the Democratic Republic of Congo and address the relocation woes of the Somali government.
The African Union on Friday rejected calls by Britain and the United States to intervene in Zimbabwe, where the president, Robert Mugabe, is conducting a slum clearance programme that has left hundreds of thousands homeless.
Nato ordered its planners to begin urgently drawing up proposals to help out in Darfur, where hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than a million displaced. Nato has approved a request for help from the African Union, the pan-continental organisation, which has 2 600 troops on the ground.
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/ 24 February 2005
The African Union’s Peace and Security Council is to meet to consider further sanctions against the government of Togo, where the military installed Faure Gnassingbe as president to replace his late father. His accession has been deemed a power grab by much of the international community, further isolating the West African state.
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/ 14 February 2005
African Union officials will fly into Somalia on Monday to assess security ahead of the deployment of African troops to help restore an administration after 14 years of chaos. The trip had been scheduled to leave on Friday, but was delayed amid security fears after the slaying of a BBC journalist in Mogadishu last Wednesday.
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/ 7 December 2004
The African Union agreed on Tuesday on a -million budget for 2005, a fourfold increase, in order to finance a series of ambitious projects. In the budget, -million is earmarked for peace and security — less than half the -million sought for this by the AU Commission.
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/ 26 October 2004
Sudan’s health minister has announced an Aids-free policy will be applied to African Union troops, tasked with monitoring a ceasefire deal in crisis-hit Darfur, who have earned a steamy reputation for assiduous off-duty mingling. He said the measure is purely precautionary and aimed at ”safeguarding the health of the people of Darfur”.
South African Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma says the burden of the funding for the African Union — including the Pan African Parliament — will fall on the biggest economy in Africa, South Africa. Asked about funding problems for the Pan African Parliament, she said there is "always a shortage of funds".