"Silencing the sound of guns" .. The slogan of an African summit hosted by Ethiopia and the Libyan crisis are among the most prominent files

The 33rd session of the African Summit started with the participation of 45 countries under the slogan "silencing the sound of guns", in an attempt to enhance the Union's participation in mediations in a number of armed conflicts that are tearing the continent apart, notably the Libyan conflict.

The work of the summit started with a closed session of the leaders of the member states to adopt the agenda, listen to reports on the state of the African Union, and elect the president of the session for the next year.

The two-day summit will discuss a range of security and economic issues, including the Libyan crisis and the operational launch of the African Free Trade Area.

The closed session will be followed by another opening session in which a number of leaders will speak, including South African President Cyril Ramafuza as the Chair of the 2020 session of the Union, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will address the session.

Al-Jazeera correspondent in Addis Ababa Hassan Razzaq said that the South African president is expected to address his country's plan at the head of the African Union, and the representative of the Palestinian government will try to mobilize African support against the US peace plan in the Middle East.

Sixty files
The summit discusses about sixty security, political, economic and institutional files. On the first day, the participants touched on six files related to the state of peace and security on the African continent, and it is concerned with studying conflict situations in several regions, such as Libya, South Sudan, the Sahel region and West Africa.

In 2013, the Union launched a pledge to end all wars on the African continent by 2020, which was not achieved.

The head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki, painted a bleak picture of the situation on the continent from the coast to Somalia, saying that the time that has passed since 2013 allowed to uncover "the complexity of the security problem in Africa more than it allowed the settlement of disputes."

The African leaders will also address the issue of the institutional reform of the Union, and the prospect of launching the upcoming African Free Trade Area next June, and the obstacles that face this, including the failure of the parliaments of some member states to ratify the African Free Trade Agreement.

The leaders are also examining the demand for a permanent seat for Africa on the United Nations Security Council.

the second day
On the second day of the African Summit, the participants will discuss development, education, climate change and fighting corruption.

On Saturday, the leaders of the member states of the Peace and Security Council in Africa called on the international community to actively participate in the continent in the efforts to settle the Libyan crisis, and the leaders of the Council in yesterday's meeting in Addis Ababa called for the cessation of foreign interference in this crisis.

The President of the Republic of the Congo, Denis Sassou Nguesso, said that the African Union is considering a proposal to form African forces in Libya, adding in a statement to the island that the Union seeks to solve the Libyan crisis through African mechanisms.