LUSAKA, (Islamweb & Agencies) -African ministers of foreign affairs Friday went behind closed doors to discuss major conflicts that have dogged the continent as they met for a second day of their preparatory talks for next week's Organisation of African Unity (OAU) summit.
At least 20 of the 53 OAU countries are currently beset by armed conflicts of one form or another.
Conflicts in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone and Angola, were some of the top items set for discussion Friday, according to the conference programme.
The conference will also examine the transition of the OAU into an African Union (AU) and its operational logistics. (Read photo caption below).
But for the AU to be effective, the OAU secretary general Salim Ahmed Salim said there was need for all the countries on the continent to work together in efforts to end the current conflicts which constituted a "major haemorrage" on Africa's limited resources.
Salim expressed concern at trends of increasing of insecurity and armed conflict, particularly around the Great Lakes region of central and east Africa. These wars, he said, had a potential to destabilise many other countries in the region.
"At a time when there is a growing feeling that progress is being made in the peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), it is regrettable that the security situation in the republic of Burundi continues to deteriorate," Salim said.
"The strengthening of the peace process in the Great Lakes region should receive the serious and urgent attention and consideration of this session," Salim urged the foreign ministers.
The bitter civil war in Burundi has left more than 200,000 dead since 1993 as the Tutsi-run government and army crack down on Hutu rebels.
South Africa's former leader Nelson Mandela, who is mediating in efforts to end the war in Burundi, is scheduled to address the heads of state to update them on the latest developments in peace efforts.
Angola where one of Africa's longest running civil wars between the rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and the Luanda government has raged almost non-stop since 1975, will be discussed.
The UN has imposed sanctions against UNITA in Angola where the war death toll is estimated at well over a million, while hundreds of thousands are displaced or starving.
The gathering is also expected to discuss extensively the formal transformation of the OAU into the African Union. The AU, the brainchild of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, officially came into being on May 26 and is modelled loosely on the European Union.
The African Union is to include an executive, a central bank, a monetary fund, a parliament and a court of justice.
On Thursday they discussed the conflict in the Indian Ocean island of the Comoros.
According to a conference source, the ministers agreed to recommend to the heads of states and governments to lift the OAU economic sanctions against one of the three Comoros islands, Anjouan, which in 1997 seceded unilaterally from the rest of the Indian Ocean republic.
The Comoros archipelango has been wracked by a constitutional and secessionist crisis.
The ministers will submit their recommendations to the heads of states and governments on Monday when they start meeting.
PHOTO CAPTION:
The 38-year-old Organisation of African Unity (OAU) has been dissolved to make way for the African Union.OAU Secretary General Dr Salim Ahmed Salim made the announcement at the OAU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Friday, May, 25, 2001. He said the African Union would bring a real change to the continent. BBC, Africa, May, 25)