AU pre-summit meetings open

About 75 Heads of State and government representatives from across the Africa continent are expected to attend the 21^st Africa Union (AU) Summit whose activities are running from Sunday the 19^th May 2013 and ends on 27^th of the same month in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

President Michael Sata will be among these Heads of State and government.

According to a statement released by the Africa Union (AU) Commission in Addis Ababa today , 450 journalists have been accredited  to cover the  activities of the summit anchored on the theme “Pan –Africanism and African Renaissance”.

The AU kicked off on Sunday the 19^th May with the 26^th Ordinary Session of Permanent Representatives Committee (PRC) which is discussing items on the agenda in preparation for the AU Summit.

This will be followed by the 23^rd Ordinary Session of the Executive Council from the 22^nd to the 23^rd of May 2013.

Ordinary sessions of the AU Summit are usually held twice a year, in January and July but this Summit has come in May, just to coincide with the celebrations of the Golden Jubilee of the Pan African Organisation which will take place on the 25 May, the Africa Freedom day.

This is the day when the Organisation of Africa Unity (OAU), which is now African Union (AU), was established.

 According to the programme released by the AU Commission, the celebrations will take place on the 25^th of May, the Africa Freedom Day, with a grand debate on “Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance”.

There will also be festivities which will be open to the public at the Millennium Hall in Addis Ababa.

The OAU was established in 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Zambia joined it in the same year.

Meanwhile, the 21^st ordinary session of assembly of the African Union is scheduled to take place on the 26^th and 27^th of May 2013.