Diversions and deviations at the Summit

Pressing issues on Somalia, Sudan and the global financial crisis were sidelined by a protracted argument about continental government

'At least our meetings with Libya's Moammar el Gadaffi as Chairman won't be boring', said one official ruefully at the African Union's 1-4 February summit in Addis Ababa. As if to buttress his point, Colonel Gadaffi then entered the conference hall, resplendent in an orange agbada and red fez and sporting wraparound sunglasses; he was accompanied by a retinue of yet more sumptuously dressed African traditional rulers who had earlier pronounced the Libyan leader to be 'Africa's King of Kings.'

Article Tags:
Libya, Moammar el Gadaffi, Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, United States, Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete, Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade, Libya's King of Kings, Gabon, Jean Ping, Madagascar, Mauritania, Tunisia, Zein el Abidine Ben Ali, Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, Sudanese, Algeria, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Somalia, Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Meles Zenawi, Omer Hassan Ahmed el Beshir, Omar Bongo Ondimba, South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, Algeria, Mohammed Benjawi, Africa Confidential, Al Shabaab

end of preview

To read the rest of the article you need to either log in or do one of the following:

Subscribe to Africa Confidential Find out more
Purchase this article on its own Find out more

If you have a print subscription already please click here for full access to the website.
If you have already logged in and believe you should have access to this article please contact customer services.