Outgoing AU chief raps slow African response to Mali

Outgoing African Union chairman Thomas Boni Yayi told African leaders Sunday their response to the conflict in Mali had been too slow, and thanked France for taking the lead in its military intervention in the country. Boni Yayi, Benin's president, told leaders at the opening of the 54-member AU summit that the body's response had taken too long, and that France's action was something "we should have done a long time ago to defend a member country". "How is it... that Africa, despite having the means to defend itself, continued to wait?" he asked. Conflict in Mali, including the scaling-up of African troops to support the weak Malian army battling Islamist militants, dominated the opening of the two-day summit, although flashpoints elsewhere on the continent were also a concern. "Much still needs to be done to resolve ongoing, renewed, and new conflict situations in a number of countries," AU Commission chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said in her opening speech at the bi-annual meeting in the Ethiopian capital. Unrest in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, tensions between former civil war foes Sudan and newly independent South Sudan, and efforts to build peace in chronically unstable Somalia, are also being discussed. "We cannot over-emphasise the need for peace and security -- without peace and security no country or region can expect to achieve prosperity for all its citizens," Dlamini-Zuma added. Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, who took over Sunday from Boni Yayi in the rotating one-year post of AU chairperson, called for "peaceful solutions" to conflict. Mali's army, boosted by the recent French military intervention, is battling Islamist insurgents who seized swathes of Mali's vast desert north following a coup last year. -- Ban 'determined to help' -- United Nations leader Ban Ki-moon told the summit he was "determined to do everything to help the people of Mali", but also urged the government to ensure "an inclusive political process" and the "full restoration of the constitutional order". After the summit, African leaders are expected to stay behind to meet for a donor conference on Tuesday to drum up support for the African-led mission in Mali, or AFISMA. The AU has said it wants to bolster the strength of AFISMA. On Friday, its security council gave member states one week to commit troops to the mission. Also high on the summit agenda is the slow progress between the rival leaders of Sudan and South Sudan to implement stalled oil, security and border deals, signed in September but still not rolled out. South Sudan's president, Salva Kiir, and his northern counterpart Omar al-Bashir met again Sunday after face-to-face talks on Friday ahead of the summit, when little progress was made. Juba's chief negotiator Pagan Amum said there was "no progress" in the meeting, and blamed Khartoum for stalling talks. "President Bashir came with all these new conditions which we believe are behind the obstruction and the implementation of the agreements signed," Amum told AFP. Ban said he was "especially concerned about the dangerous humanitarian situation" in Sudan's war-torn border regions, where rebels Khartoum allege are backed by South Sudan are battling the government. "I call on the authorities in Sudan and South Sudan to immediately begin direct talks to allow urgently needed humanitarian assistance to reach affected civilians," he said. Leaders will also discuss recent unrest in the eastern DR Congo, where M23 rebels last year took over the key town of Goma before pulling out. Regional leaders, including the presidents of DR Congo, Rwanda and Uganda, are expected to meet Monday on the sidelines of the summit, with diplomats suggesting they will sign a commitment to end the conflict. Ban, who said the UN peacekeeping force would be bolstered in eastern DR Congo, urged them to sign the agreement which he said aimed to "address the root causes of recurring violence" in the volatile and mineral-rich region. The AU summit, officially themed "Pan Africanism and African Renaissance", kicks off the 50th anniversary celebrations of the founding of the Organisation of African Unity, the predecessor to the AU.