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S.M. Boubacar: Address at the Africa Day 2014 Celebration in New York
Written by H.E. Mr. Sidi Mohamed Boubacar, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Mauritania to the UN
Friday, May 23, 2014
First, allow me to thank the Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, for giving us the honor of being here to commemorate the anniversary of our continental organization. I would like to also thank the African Group for organizing, in partnership with the Universal Peace Federation and the Group of Spouses of African Ambassadors to the United Nations, this commemorative day under the banner: "2014, Year of Agriculture and Food Security."
Being here and among you today gives me the ultimate privilege to deliver a message from H.E. Mr. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, President of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania and President of the African Union.
Today, May 25, 2014, Africa, our continent, celebrates the 51st Anniversary of the creation of the Organization of African Unity, which later became the African Union. In such a moment of happiness, I am particularly pleased to send my warm congratulations and to extend my best wishes to all the daughters and sons of our dear continent.
Allow me to seize this historic opportunity to express all the respect and consideration that we have for the Founding Fathers for the monumental work they have accomplished while serving the unity and the advancement of the African people. We would like to pay tribute to them from the bottom of our hearts, for they have laid the foundations of corporation between all people and brought our continent to the level it rightfully deserves in the concert of Nations.
We can be proud of the honorable work done by our continental organization, including liberating the continent from the shackles of colonial domination and the abject system of apartheid.
Our organization has work hard to translate into reality the shared consciousness of our common destiny in order to build a united Africa and one which is resolutely looking towards progress.
Today, we are very happy to see the undeniable progress we have made in terms of democratization of our continent, and to note all of the efforts that have been deployed to promote and consolidate the rule of law and good governance. In that regard, I would like to make a special mention of the decisive role played by African women, who resolutely and selflessly dedicated themselves to carrying the torch of the fight for freedom and the promotion of human rights.
We should take pride in the fact that Africa has made real progress on the path towards sustainable development. The continent enjoys significant growth rates. From now on, our fight's creed should be Continental Integration.
Africa is an immensely rich and young continent, with enormous potential. This constitutes a key asset for the prosperity of our regional economy communities, which are constantly making progress, and an asset which helps foster the creation of a continental free-trade zone with over 1 billion consumers.
Food self-sufficiency, the development of our agro-industry and the fight against poverty and malnutrition remain the goals that must be fully achieved by our organization in order to ensure prosperity and food security for all of our people.
The theme of this year’s summit, “2014, Year of Agriculture and Food Security,” was chosen to remind us how agriculture is at the core of the development issue.
In order to fully preserved political and economic progress, we must have peace and security. Conflicts, terrorism and cross-border insecurity represent serious threats to some of our countries.
We firmly condemn the kidnapping of young innocent high school girls in Nigeria, and demand their immediate and unconditional release. Such practices are contrary to the presence of Islam, a fundamentally tolerant and peace religion.
The difficult situations in Mali, Nigeria, the Central African Republic, Somalia, South Sudan and Libya are sources of concern and should be the focus of our attention.
On the other hand, the positive changes we are seeing in the situation around the Great Lakes should be a source of satisfaction.
We also take note with great satisfaction of the significant progress made in setting up our peace and security architecture, and in particular CARIC, as well as the positive development we have seen in the Nouakchott process.
Africa is counting on its partners to help the continent meet all of its underdevelopment challenges. A reform of the United Nations system, giving a greater role and more weight to Africa, is needed.
Persistent efforts throughout the continent have allowed to notably improve our development indicators. Additional efforts are necessary in order to fight against endemic diseases and reduce unemployment and poverty, in particular among women and the youth.
We need to modernize and expand our basic infrastructures, and to make sure that all of our natural resources are properly managed and promoted, and we must invest more in education, training, sciences, technologies and research.
Finally, I would like to personally call upon all the daughters and sons of Africa to take responsibilities and meet the challenges Africa is facing today in order to implement our Post-2015 Development Agenda in accordance with our “Vision for Africa 2063.”
God bless the African Union!
God bless African solidarity!
Thank you.
I cannot conclude without thanking one more time the Secretary-General of the United Nations, as well as the organizers of these commemorative events of the 51st anniversary of our African organization.