UN Secretary General urges African leaders to focus efforts on peace, development

Abstract

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. BAN Ki-moon today told African leaders that recurrent regional conflicts tend to distract the continent from urgent challenges such as the international economic and financial crisis, climate change and high food prices. The Secretary-General made a passionate appeal for the body to continue its concerted efforts to seek peaceful solutions to conflicts, which have beset the continent for decades. The global economic crisis is unprecedented in scale and scope. It is erasing jobs and undermining with alarming speed the hard-won gains of recent years. For a majority of people, particularly those in developing countries the most painful and terrifying phase of the crisis has only just begun.