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38 African Heads of State to Attend OAU Summit
The Zambian government announced on Thursday that 38 African heads of state have confirmed so far to attend the upcoming Organization of African Unity (OAU) summit, which will kick off early next month in Lusaka.
"I am happy to say the response from the African countries has been overwhelming and as of today we have received 38 confirmations of heads of state, who have confirmed attendance," said chief government spokesman Vernon Mwaanga in an interview with Xinhua.
Mwaanga, also minister of Information, said that Zambia is now ready to hold the summit.
"All the facilities for the conference are ready," he said, adding that three OAU inspection teams have already expressed satisfaction after their visit to Zambia.
The three inspection teams were the OAU finance team, the team led by OAU Assistant Secretary-General Daniel Antonio and the team led by OAU Secretary-General Salim Ahamed Salim.
They inspected all the facilities expected to accommodate delegates for the July 9-11 summit, Mwaanga said.
"Yesterday I invited all African ambassadors to Zambia to visit the facilities and they were all satisfied," he added.
The minister said that Zambia started to prepare the summit after the 1999 Ouagadougou summit, where the OAU made a decision that the 37th summit will be held in Lusaka.
Mwaanga also refuted some reports from an international news agency that Zambia has run out of accommodation to house delegates at the upcoming summit.
He said that the Mulungushi Village has 44 villas designated to accommodate heads of state, adding that the Zambian government also asked a lot of ministers to vacate their residence for the list of properties that will be used by delegates.
The Lusaka summit is a great event for Africa, in which the OAU will be transformed into the African Union.
The African Union is loosely based on the European Union idea and is due eventually to consist of an executive, a central bank, a monetary fund, a parliament and a court of justice.
The OAU was established in 1963 by the early leaders of African independence to use it to launch a United States of Africa, an idea which failed because of various reasons.
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