Yaounde hosts extraordinary Summit of COPAX

An extraordinary Summit of the Council of peace and security in Central Africa (COPAX) takes place today in Yaounde. As is the tradition for this kind of meeting, a single point will be on the agenda of work.

It's the Coalition's response of the economic community of the Central Africa States (ECCAS) against the criminal action carried out by the terrorist group Boko Haram.

Arriving in Yaoundé yesterday, the heads of State and delegation panels will focus at the Congress Hall on records prepared for the occasion by the Council of Ministers of COPAX, who completed their work Saturday night.

According to corroborating sources, they made concrete proposals to provide multifaceted support to Cameroon and Chad, member countries of COPAX, including human, logistic, financial, diplomatic and even intelligence.

As a prelude to the Council of Ministers, the defence and security of COPAX Commission met Thursday and Friday in the capital city.

The Summit meeting which is taking place today in Yaounde and that is more important to demonstrate what was decided on 31st January last in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) in a dialogue on the sidelines of the 24th Summit of the African Union.

The participants in this meeting including heads of State and delegation of ECCAS, the Secretary general of this sub-regional organization and the special representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for Africa had "decided to activate appropriate Community mechanisms, including the Pact of mutual assistance between the Member States of ECCAS and the relevant provisions of the Protocol on COPAX with a view to implementing a sub-regional strategy to lend a hand for Cameroon and Chad in the fight against Boko Haram."

The extraordinary Summit of COPAX, which takes place today at the Congress Hall is a response from Central Africa to the appeal launched on 8th January last by the head of State, Paul Biya, in response to the new year wishes from members of the diplomatic corps accredited to Yaoundé, so a global response was needed curtail the global threat; terrorism.

One remembers that one week after this call, specifically January 15, 2015, the Secretary-General of the economic community of Central African States, strongly condemned the acts of aggression directed against Cameroon and called on other Member States of the Organization to express their solidarity to Yaoundé.

Six days later, on January 21, 2015, Ahmad Allam-Mi was received in audience at the unity Palace by president Paul Biya.

At the end of the visit, the top diplomat had revealed to the press that he and his host had worked on the strategy to be implemented from the perspective of a synergy of the CEMAC member countries to combat the terrorist group Boko Haram.

Many other countries and international organizations gave their support to the proposal of Paul Biya. This is the case of the African Union which validated the draft of the Commission of the basin of Lake Chad (CBLT) and Benin on the establishment of a force of 8,700 men. This project and many others announced in the context of the fight against Boko Haram are not mutually exclusive.

They complement in synergy essential to ensure peace and security in Central Africa. And attest to the determination of the Africans to take their destiny in their hand.