First African Union extraordinary humanitarian summit opens in Malabo

During his inaugural speech AU chairperson and Senegalese president Macky Sall urged his counterparts to tackle the root causes of humanitarian crises on the continent. The dedicated summit and a pledging conference, gathered around 20 African leaders and donors looking to raise funds.

The African Union extraordinary humanitarian summit began Friday in Equatorial Guinea.

Around 20 heads of states made the trip to Malabo to attend two meetings scheduled through Saturday.

The first session, dedicated to the humanitarian crisis and a pledging conference, gathered African leaders, donors as well as the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator to raise funds.

According to AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat, 113 million Africans need urgent humanitarian assistance this year, including 48 million refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced people. In a statement, the AU said 15 particularly hard-hit countries required urgent aid, with climate shocks and conflicts causing humanitarian needs to increase "exponentially".

An assembly declaration as well as a pledges and commitments to the continental humanitarian situation are two of the expected outcomes for the first summit.

During his inaugural speech AU serving chairperson and Senegalese president Macky Sall urged his counterparts to tackle the root causes of humanitarian crises on the continent, reminding that "prevention" is better and "easier than cure".

He hinted at the second summit scheduled on Saturday that will center on terrorism and unconstitutional government change which cause population displacement and insecurity.