The African Union hosted two extraordinary summits in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea over May 25-28, which were the Specialized Technical Committee (STC) Extraordinary Humanitarian Summit and Pledging Conference (May 23-24); Meeting of the Executive Council (May 25); Extraordinary Humanitarian Summit and Pledging Conference (May 27); Extraordinary Summit on Terrorism and Unconstitutional Changes of Government (May 28);
AU Extraordinary Summit: Calendar of Side Events and the Extraordinary Summit on Unconstitutional Changes of Governments in Africa (https://au.int/sites/default/files/documents/41822-doc-Draft_calendar_of_Side_Events_EN.pdf). The African Union website carries news and many of the speeches at the events.
The Extraordinary Humanitarian Summit was attended by about 20 African leaders and donors, according to Africanews, who planned to address multiple humanitarian crises which wrack the entire continent, and hoped for pledges of support from various organizations; it included the participation of UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths (who has also served as Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Yemen since 2018).
The keynote was given on May 27 by AU Chairperson, Senegal President Macky Sall, who urged his counterparts to tackle the root causes of humanitarian crises on the continent.
“According to AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat, 113 million Africans need urgent humanitarian assistance this year, including 48 million refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced people. In a statement, the AU said 15 particularly hard-hit countries required urgent aid, with climate shocks and conflicts causing humanitarian needs to increase ‘exponentially,’” reported Africanews.
