Sunday, November 22, 2015

Address Root Causes of Terrorism, Says Zuma
Nov 22, 2015
Wire Staff

Africa also has to deal with threats posed by radical extremism and terrorism, says president at Africa Peace Award ceremony

THE only way of dealing with the threat of radical extremism and terrorism facing the African continent is to address the root causes rather than focus on the symptoms‚ President Jacob Zuma says.

He was speaking at the Africa Peace Award ceremony in Durban on Saturday night. The award‚ which is presented by the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes‚ was awarded to the African Union (AU) Commission for its active role in leading a process to bring freedom and peace in Africa for over fifty years.

As Africa strove to "silence the guns by 2020"‚ it continued to face threats not only brought about by the proliferation of arms and human and drug trafficking but also threats posed by radical extremism and terrorism, Mr Zuma said on Saturday night.

"With regard to the latter‚ we can fundamentally only address the matter effectively if we deal with finding the root causes of these acts rather than focus only on the symptoms‚" he said.

Mr Zuma said the AU Commission‚ had‚ in its remarkable work in promoting peace and security‚ continued to encourage member states to strengthen the African Peace and Security Architecture (Apsa) and its various elements.

"Although we still have areas of conflict and strife on the continent‚ such as the challenges we continue to face in Somalia‚ Central African Republic‚ Mali and the Sahel‚ Libya and eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo‚ our collective efforts at promoting peace have yielded significant successes as evidenced by the successful recent conclusion of free‚ fair and credible elections on our continent," said Mr Zuma.

"These have ushered in governments that have come into being through the will of the people.

"However‚ we remain concerned by situations that threaten to derail our peace gains‚ such as the developing situation in Burundi‚" he said.

TMG Digital

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