CAIRO: General Moammar Qaddafi played host to a number of African leaders in Tripoli last Sunday with an agenda highlighting the Darfur crisis as well as preparations for an African Union (AU) summit to be held later this week in the capital of Ethiopia.
President Hosni Mubarak was among those attending the mini summit, along with Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir, Chad’s President Idriss Deby, Gabon’s Omar Bong, Mauritania’s Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallah, Eritrea’s Isaias Afworki, and Senegal’s Abdoulaye Wade.
Relations between Chad and Sudan were discussed, with no success at easing the tensions between the neighboring countries. Long-running accusations from both nations of supporting each other’s rebel groups persist, and the thousands fleeing Darfur for refuge in Chad further increase the border tensions.
The Darfur crisis also topped the agenda.
Nabil Abdel Fatah, Sudan expert and deputy head of Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, offered his view of the summit to Daily News Egypt, describing it as a “carnival.
“All those talks and meetings held by General Qaddafi are simply an attempt to prove his and Libya’s presence in the region – in African and Arab affairs, he said, expressing the lack of substance and sense of urgency of the summit.
Presidential spokesman Suliman Awad, on the other hand, assured Al-Ahram newspaper that President Mubarak is keen on finding a solution for peace and stability in the Darfur region.
Aside from Sudan, the meeting worked on planning the agenda for next week’s AU summit, in Adis Ababa which will consider Qaddafi’s suggestion of uniting all African countries under a United States of Africa.
Among the other issues comprising the mini-summit was that of industrial development in Africa, and the situations in Congo, Somalia and Kenya. Mubarak and Qaddafi also made time for side talks concerning Arab affairs, highlighting political dilemmas in Gaza, Lebanon and Iraq, the strengthening of relations between Libya and Egypt, and the status of Egyptian workers in Libya.
