ADDIS ABABA (Halbeeg News) – President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Friday evening to attend the 36th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union.
The theme of the AU Summit is ‘‘Acceleration of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Implementation.’’
African leaders will today gather Saturday in Addis Ababa for an annual summit, aiming to jumpstart a faltering trade deal while also focusing on the continent’s most pressing challenges, including armed conflict and a worsening food crisis.
As the continent reels from a record drought in the Horn of Africa and deadly violence in the Sahel region and the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the two-day African Union meeting will look to address these issues and accelerate a free-trade pact launched in 2020.
The African Continental Free Trade Agreement is billed as the biggest in the world in terms of population, gathering 54 out of 55 African countries, with Eritrea the only holdout.
African nations currently trade only about 15 per cent of their goods and services with each other, and the AfCFTA aims to boost that by 60 per cent by 2034 by eliminating almost all tariffs.
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