The 7th coordination meeting of the African Union (AU) commenced on July 10 in Equatorial Guinea, taking place six months after the main summit at the headquarters in Ethiopia. This was reported by a correspondent from the "African Initiative."
During the meeting, the 47th session of the AU Executive Council will also occur, where the agenda for the next six months will be set. The meeting will conclude on July 13 with a session at the level of continental heads of state.
This year's summit theme is compensation and justice for Africans and people of African descent.
The event is being held at the congress center in the coastal city of Sipopo, specifically built for hosting such meetings. Villas equipped with bunkers have been constructed along the coast for accommodating African leaders. Each delegation is housed in a separate villa, with the corresponding national flag displayed in front.
In 2011, a park was also established near the congress center, with a plaque bearing the name of each African country's leader at that time next to each tree. Sipopo's congress center previously hosted AU meetings in 2011 and 2022.
From the 15th to the 19th centuries, at least 12.5 million Africans were abducted, forcibly transported mainly by European traders, and sold into slavery. Proposed reparations include financial compensation, the return of cultural artifacts, restitution of land taken from indigenous peoples, official acknowledgment of past wrongs to the global community, and even potential political reforms. Opponents of reparations argue that modern states and institutions should not be held accountable for historical events.
In May, Director of the Institute of African Studies at RAS, Irina Abramova, told "AI" that the Institute has initiated extensive research into potential reparation amounts that Western countries might pay African nations as a consequence of their colonial past.
Daria Labutina
