The tenth summit of the African Union begins in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, tomorrow. The theme of the three-day meeting is the "industrial development of Africa". Here are ten things you didn't know about the African Union (AU)...
- A declaration calling for the establishment of an African Union (the Sirte Declaration) was made by the Organisation of African Unity (the AU's predecessor) on 9.9.1999.
- The AU has 53 member states; the only African country not a member is Morocco (which is opposed to the membership of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, also known as Western Sahara).
- The working languages of the AU are Arabic, English, French, Portuguese and Swahili.
- One of the visions of the AU is "a partnership between governments and all segments of civil society, in particular women, youth and the private sector, in order to strengthen solidarity and cohesion amongst the peoples of Africa."
- The AU has a number of similarities with the European Union: one of its objectives is the creation of an African Economic Community with a single currency.
- The AU's main decision-making body is its Assembly, which comprises the heads of state of member countries, and meets at least once a year.
- The current chairman of the AU is the Ghanaian president, John Kufuor.
- The AU's headquarters are in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
- The first military intervention by the AU came in 2003, when peacekeeping soldiers from South Africa, Ethiopia and Mozambique were deployed to Burundi.
- The emblem
of the African Union (pictured) features five elements: palm leaves (peace); a gold circle (wealth and a bright future); a green circle (hopes and aspirations); a plain map of Africa, without boundaries (unity) and small interlocking red rings (solidarity and "the blood shed for Liberation of Africa").
