Ghanaian Vice President Aliu Mahama has warned on the flow of sophisticated weapons to Africa, which eventually end up in the hands of rebels to perpetuate conflicts, according to the Ghana News Agency on Monday.
The vice president expressed the concern in Abuja, capital of Nigeria on Sunday at the Fourth Africa Forum of the Partnership with Africa Initiative which aims at fostering development and co-operation between Africa and the industrialized nations.
Mahama noted that this is an issue that Africa and their European counterparts need to address in order to enhance the socio-economic development of Africa.
The vice president said "For several years, Africa has been engulfed with armed conflicts, which have resulted and continued to result in the displacement of millions of the civilian population to refugee camps thereby depriving them of their means of livelihood, human dignity and hope."
The three-day conference, hosted by German President Horst Kohler and his Nigerian counterpart Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, which started on Friday, was held under the theme: "Barriers to Partnership and how to overcome them."
He said African countries and development partners are collaborating to find solutions to conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo , the Darfur Region of Sudan and Somalia.
On good governance in Africa, Mahama expressed the view that many people on the continent are yet to come into terms with the democratization process to view the electoral process with pragmatism.
He lauded the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) as the panacea to bad governance, which has been a barrier between Africa and Europe, noting that the APRM would ensure the progress of African unity and integration.
He stressed that partnership between Africa and Europe should not involve only political leaders, but also the interaction and participation of people in various fields.
Mahama said Africa has a lot of skilled labor to feed the European job, which should be harnessed to lead to "brain gain" instead of the existing brain drain.
Source:Xinhua
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