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Afro-Arab Summit Calls for Increased Cooperation Among Members
Edward Yeranian | Cairo
Arab and African leaders are meeting in the Libyan town of Syrte for an Afro-Arab summit to discuss increasing mutual cooperation in various domains.
Arab and African leaders met in the Libyan town of Syrte on the heels of an Arab League summit just one day earlier.
Libyan head of state Colonel Muammar Khaddafi, who presided over both summits, warned against the eventual division of Sudan, following a scheduled referendum on the subject this January:
He says that two-thirds of all Arabs are African and they have racial, linguistic and geographic ties with the other third living outside Africa. He insists any conflict in Sudan will spread from Africa to the rest of the Arab world and it will be difficult to prevent the division of other Arab states. He also claims that so-called ‘imperialistic’ states, as well as Israel are behind developments in Sudan.
The Colonel went on to argue the break-up of Sudan into north and south would threaten all of Africa.
He says what is happening in Sudan is a disease, or at the very least a contagion for all of Africa, because it would represent the first time since the end of colonialism that the map of Africa, inherited from colonial borders, will be redrawn. This, he claims, is a bad precedent that could spell the division of many other African states.(continued)
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Several African leaders touched on economic, political and security issues. Chad’s President Idriss Deby warned of an insidious, natural threat to many Arab and African states, which is desertification:
He says desertification, and the sedimentation and drying up of waterways, like the Niger River, are subjects of pre-occupation for African states (and) they constitute a regional problem which necessitates collective action.
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DESERTIFICATION 