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The African Heads of State and Governments are meeting for a three-day meeting in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, from May 26th-28th to discuss challenges of security and unconstitutional change of government in Africa.
The African Union’s extraordinary humanitarian summit began on 26th May in Malabo, the capital city of Equatorial Guinea. The three-day event has the participation of 20 heads of state.
The first session discussed the humanitarian crisis in the continent. The African leaders, donors as well as the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator have pledged to raise funds to meet the humanitarian crisis in the continent. AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat has explained the extent of the humanitarian works needed. Close to 113 million Africans need urgent humanitarian assistance this year. They include 48 million refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced people. Fifteen particularly hard-hit countries required urgent aid. They suffered from climate shocks and conflicts, which has increased the quantum of relief work exponentially.
During his inaugural speech, AU serving chairperson and Senegalese president Macky Sall urged his counterparts to tackle the root causes of humanitarian crises on the continent. The second summit scheduled on Saturday will discuss terrorism and unconstitutional government change which cause population displacement and insecurity.www.trendsnafrica.com in its last editorial titled  COVID-Conflicts-Climate -Crisis – A perfect storm in the making, published on 16th May had flagged the extent of the problem. (https://trendsnafrica.com/covid-conflicts-climate-crisis-a-perfect-storm-in-the-making/
In the meantime, UNICEF urged the African governments and development partners to seize the opportunity of the summit and the AU’s Year of Nutrition to scale-up life-saving responses. It warned that without urgent humanitarian interventions, 1.2 million children will face severe health crises this year in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, northern Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Somalia, South Sudan, Mali, and Burkina Faso. It has been predicted that going by the current trends,  the situation will worsen in the coming months.
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