African Leaders Have Shown They Are "Incompetent" - Abu Ramadan

The National Youth Organizer of the Peoples' National Convention(PNC), Abu Ramadan, has questioned the competence of African leaders in solving internal conflict problems to bring peace on the continent.

A clearly peeved Ramadan questioned the competence and efforts members who constitute the African Union have put in to solve the ongoing impasse in Mali.

Following the killing of a French soldier by some Malian militants, the French government has declared war in some parts of Mali and deployed the services of most African soldiers to teach the militants bitter lessons.

The war against Islamist militants in northern Mali including the deployment of African troops was also expected to dominate talks at the African Union summit in Ethiopia when the African leaders met.

A scaling-up of African troops, was agreed upon by the leaders to support the weak Malian army boosted by the recent French military intervention; to battle Islamist insurgents, who seized Mali's desert north following a coup last year. The AU has said the priority is to send troops immediately to the embattled West African state.

But the leading member of AFAG, challenged the competence of the African leaders, claiming that they had always allowed the Western countries to dictate and tear our continent apart whenever they had an interest in solving conflict in Africa.

He prayed the United States of America(USA) takes a back seat and allow the conflict to be solved amicably. He indicted the USA for being tyrannical and ruthless when it came to resolving conflicts in other countries.

“My only fear in the Mali crisis is that America as a country itself doesn’t get involved. I mean I don’t want America to take over the operations in Mali. This is because, there are testimonies to prove that matters haven’t been completely resolved in African countries that America has involved itself”, he said on Peace FM’s K"okrooko" programme.

"When they come, they come with a brutal force and dictate to those involved”, he added.

"ECOWAS and AU have still not convinced the world that they are competent in handling their own issues. When the Ghadafi issue came up, the AU and ECOWAS, couldn't resolve it until the United States descended into the matter. When the American's came into it, they smoked the man out like a 'mouse'...it was the same with the Zimbabwean and Ivory Coast situation. I always ask myself what the essence of ECOWAS and AU is when we can't resolve our own internal issues", he stated.