Schröder Encourages More Self-Help for Africa
January 25, 2004
Schöder’s message was the same at the end of his four-nation African trip as at the beginning. Africa needs to improve its efforts for solving conflicts on the continent, and it requires the help from the rest of the world to do so.
"Africa needs to develop its own capacity for conflict prevention and management and also build its own capacity in the spheres of military, police and civilian peacekeeping personnel," the chancellor said during the opening ceremony of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center in Accra.
Standing with Ghana President John Kufuor, Schröder praised the West African leader for helping to resolve some of the region’s worst entanglements in the last years. As head of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Kufuor sent Ghanaian troops to help end fighting in the Ivory Coast and Liberia.
"That is why the G-8 last year agreed with the European Union and the United Nations to strengthen African continental and regional organizations in conflict management and to help make them more effective," the German leader said.
A center for peace
As its part in that goal, Germany donated more than €2 million ($2.52 million) towards the construction of the Kofi Annan center which will focus on military, police and civilian measures for securing peace.
"It is essential for these three areas to be closely linked," Schröder said. "Purely military peace missions cannot eliminate insecurity and instability in the long run," he added.
As part of his country’s pledge to help Africa and ECOWAS, Schröder said Germany would cancel the 16.4 million-euro debt Ghana owed it. "International support is well invested here," Schröder said. "Without peace, the people of Africa have no hope of sharing in the fruits of globalization."