Luanda, 24 September (ANGOP) – The Angolan Head of State, João Lourenço, demanded this Thursday in New York the immediate and unconditional release of the deposed President of Guinea Conakry, Alpha Condé, who was arrested by the military that staged a coup earlier this month.
João Lourenço was speaking before the United Nations General Assembly as part of the high-level debate of its 76th session, which began on Tuesday and runs until the 27th of this month.
The Angolan president urged the international community to act with more firmness and determination to discourage unconstitutional changes of regimes in Africa, instead of limiting itself to issuing simple condemnatory statements.
He said it was worrying that the alteration of the constitutional order that often occurs in African countries with the use of military force had not been met with an adequate and sufficiently vigorous reaction from the international community.
Citing as examples the cases of Mali and, more recently, Guinea-Conakry, President João Lourenço said it was necessary to discourage this « reprehensible » practice.
He reiterated his appeal to the international community to act « with tenacity » and not only to issue declarations of condemnation, « in order to force the actors of such acts to return power to the legitimately instituted organs ».
« We cannot continue to allow recent examples like those in Guinea and others to prosper, in Africa, and on other continents. This is a great opportunity for the heads of state and government gathered here to demand, in unison, the immediate and unconditional release of the President of the Republic of Guinea, Professor Alpha Condé, » he said.
The Angolan President was also concerned with the threats to world peace and security that are being maintained by extremist groups in the African Sahel, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in Mozambique and in other regions of the planet.
In his opinion, these situations oblige the international community to mobilise continuously to strengthen the capacity to respond to this dangerous activity which attacks the social and economic stability of the countries concerned.
He also deplored « the return of mercenarism », with the recruitment from anywhere in the world of professionals without an army, paid to kill, to destabilise countries, to depose democratically elected politicians and regimes.
He said it was a phenomenon once strongly condemned and fought « but today unfortunately it is encouraged and nurtured by powerful forces hiding behind anonymi ty ».
On Ethiopia, he invited the United Nations, the African Union and the International Community in general to encourage the Ethiopian authorities to find the best ways to put an end to the conflict in the Tigray region.
For President João Lourenço, it is imperative to remove the threat of a humanitarian catastrophe before it becomes more serious and it is too late.
