CRI听力:AU Summit Gets Underway in Addis Ababa

More than 30 African heads of state gathered on Thursday for the opening session of 22nd AU Heads of State meeting. The theme is "Agriculture and food security".

In his opening remarks, the outgoing chair of the 54 member-bloc, Hailemariam Desalegn, hailed Africa's governments for their commitment in improving agriculture.

"I am indeed very pleased to note that more and more countries are allocating 10% of their national budget to agricultural sector. The transformation of agriculture holds the key to the success of our collective effort to realize our vision."

The summit was preceded by the meeting of the AU Peace and Security Council, where leaders deliberated on the situations in South Sudan, Central African Republic and Egypt.

While expressing appreciation for international support in solving African problems, leaders also made calls to build capacity to solve these issues internally.

Here is African Union Commission chair Dlamini Zuma.

"As we deliberate on this crisis situation we should continue to reflect on the urgent need to equip Africa with a robust and an ever ready capability to easily prevent or swiftly respond to emerging conflicts at a very early stage."

The summit comes in the wake of progress in resolving the South Sudan crisis.

On Wednesday, seven out of the eleven detainees held in south Sudan, accused of attempting to stage a coup, were released and handed over to neighboring Kenya.

This partially met a demand by rebel forces, made at the peace talks to end the fighting.

However, according to Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Jan Eliasson, much needs to be done to ensure normalcy returns to South Sudan.

"Our combined efforts should now focus on protecting civilians preventing gross violation of human rights and facilitating humanitarian assistance I urge the parties to strictly adhere to the cessation of hostilities agreements signed last week and to intensify their efforts for reconciliation and domestic peace."

The opening session of the summit also featured the election of Mauritanian president Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz who will be the AU chairman for one year.

For CRI, this is Chen Feng.