MINISTERS ISSUE CALLS TO DEFINE AFRICAL'S BORDERS

[Jacaylbaro]

Ministers issue call to define Africa's borders

 

 

Ministers from the 53-member African Union on Thursday called for a clear definition of Africa's borders in a bid to eliminate one of the main causes of conflict on the continent.

 

After a one-day meeting in Addis Ababa, ministers and officials from AU countries agreed to define Africa's borders by 2012 and further integration among African countries.

 

Only a quarter of the continent's borders -- legacies of European colonialism in the 19th and 20th centuries -- are currently marked precisely, according to the AU.

 

"The adoption of this declaration is an advance because for the first time, there was a calm debate on the border question," the bloc's Peace and Security Council (PSC) Commissioner Said Djinnit told AFP after the meeting.

 

"After African countries gained independence, the ideal of African unity for a while gave the idea that it was possible to transcend borders, but today we realise that it's not by ignoring a problem that we can resolve it," Djinnit said, referring to numerous African border conflicts.

 

African borders drawn by colonialists often split ethnic groups between countries and spark conflict over access to natural resources.

 

Thursday's declaration is due to be approved at a summit of of AU heads of state and government in Accra, Ghana at the start of July.

 

 

Source Africasia