Tension in Middle East:

African Union urges Egypt reforms

ETHIOPIA: The African Union urged Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to respond to mass protests with reforms as its leaders met Sunday to tackle the array of crises gripping the continent.

More than 20 leaders gathered at the bloc’s headquarters in Ethiopia for a summit dominated by the turmoil in Egypt and Tunisia, the political crisis in Ivory Coast and controversy over the designation of Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema as the African Union’s new chairman.

As deadly anti-government protests in Egypt raged into a sixth day, AU Peace and Security Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra called on Mubarak to bring in reforms in response to the unrest. “We believe that there are changes that are necessary in order to respond to the wishes of the people, economic reforms, social measures,and probably also issues related to the governement that need to be adressed,” Lamamra said.

In contrast, Lamamra said that Tunisia was “moving in a direction which seems to reflect the wishes of the people” after a popular uprising there ended the 23-year rule of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali earlier this month.

At the summit, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for “restraint, non-violence and respect of fundamental rights and freedoms and human rights” during the protests in Egypt, which have so far claimed more than 100 lives. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who also attended the Addis Ababa summit, called on African leaders to draw lessons from the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt and to anticipate public desire for change.

Addis Ababa, Monday, AFP