Oct. 12 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, has called on the 20th anniversary of the founding of the African Union (AU) to all United Nations Member States to spare no effort in supporting the AU so that it can achieve his objectives.
Specifically, the Secretary General of the United Nations has asked the leaders on the African continent “and beyond” to redouble their support for the AU to achieve an “integrated, peaceful and prosperous” continent.
To this end, it has reiterated its request to rich countries to provide 100,000 million dollars (a similar figure in euros) annually to support the mitigation of the consequences of climate change and adaptation in developing countries, as well as other measures of financing and debt relief.
“Once again, the most vulnerable are the ones who suffer the most. This is unacceptable. And that is why, three weeks ago, I called for a G20-led Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) stimulus to massively boost the assistance for the development of Africa”, explained Guterres during an intervention in the Security Council.
Likewise, he has asserted that international financial institutions and multilateral banks must eliminate the barriers that prevent developing countries from accessing the financing they need.
“We need an effective global debt relief mechanism. Many African countries are in urgent need of making this mechanism work,” Guterres added.
The UN chief has also stressed the need to combat the climate emergency, which is causing disasters such as droughts, hurricanes and flash floods.
“For many Africans, climate change is not a distant threat, but a daily reality,” Guterres stressed, recalling that the continent is suffering the consequences of rising temperatures despite the fact that Africa barely contributes to global gas emissions. greenhouse.
“This is a textbook case of moral and economic injustice,” he added.
However, the UN Secretary General congratulated the AU and its 55 members, underlining the importance of the measures carried out jointly.
“Over the last 20 years, the United Nations and the African Union have developed a unique partnership, rooted in the principles of complementarity, respect and African ownership, a partnership that has become the cornerstone of multilateralism,” Guterres explained.
In this regard, he listed some of the latest highlights of his cooperation, including initiatives to support the timely return to constitutional order in Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali, carried out jointly with the West African regional bloc, ECOWAS.
