ADDIS ABABA — African Union leaders met Sunday to tackle ongoing conflicts on the continent, a day after the pan-African bloc threw itself a lavish birthday party celebrating everything positive in its 50 years of existence.

Long-running unrest in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo dominated the start of the two-day AU meeting, as leaders from the Great Lakes region met for the first time since signing an agreement in February aimed at restoring peace in the region.

"A lot of progress has been made... I think we will be able to fix it, the Congo is going to be fixed," Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete said after the meeting, on the sidelines of the main summit at AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital.

Tanzania is sending 1,280 troops to join a new United Nations brigade with a mandate to conduct "targeted offensive operations" against rebels in DR Congo’s mineral-rich east.

However, UN chief Ban Ki-moon was more hesitant, saying that while progress was being made, promises on paper must be enacted on the ground.

"We will need the test of implementation," said Ban, who visited the flashpoint Congolese town of Goma last week as part of a regional tour.
Leaders are also expected to discuss a proposal to urge the International Criminal Court to back off the trial of Kenya’s leaders on charges of crimes against humanity.

The proposal, agreed by AU foreign ministers on Thursday, would ask the ICC to refer the trials of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Vice President William Ruto back to their home country.

The proposal would have no legal impact on ICC proceedings if passed, but would significantly boost Kenyatta’s standing on the continent.

Kenyatta and Ruto, elected in March, both face trial in The Hague for their alleged roles in orchestrating deadly violence after previous elections in 2007.

It would be first time the pan-African body has moved formally against the ICC, even though Kenyatta is the second African leader to face trial after genocide charges were brought against Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir.

Amnesty International has urged leaders to throw out the proposal it said was a "worrying attempt by the Kenyan authorities to avoid justice".

The rights group called on the 34 AU members who have signed the ICC’s founding Rome Statute — including Kenya — to "protect the international justice mechanism they have committed to".

Mali is also expected to be discussed at the summit: it is about to receive a UN peacekeeping force to support French soldiers who have been fighting Islamist rebels in the country’s desert north since January.

The agenda will also likely include Madagascar — in political deadlock since a 2009 coup — as well as war-torn Somalia, where an AU force is battling Islamist insurgents.

Africa remains the world’s poorest continent and its most war-prone, but development indicators — including health, education, infant mortality, economic growth and democracy — have improved steadily in the past 50 years.

The continent is also home to some of the fastest-growing economies in the world, according to the International Monetary Fund, and has attracted huge amounts of foreign investment in recent years. — AFP