By Muhammad Amaan
The African Union Commission on Friday extolled women in theatres of conflict and those involved in Mediation and Peace Negotiation processes.
The AU said was an admirable task highlighting the depth of humanity that imbues them, adding that they symbolise the future of an Africa in constant quest for peace.
Chairman of the AU, Moussa Faki Mahamat, said this in a message on the celebration of International Women’s Day 2024, marked with the theme, “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress.”
According to him, IWD is a symbolic day which fixes in the global and African collective memory, the exigency to restore the rights of women, of which they should never have been robbed.
Questioning progress made towards the ultimate objective of IWD, Mahamat decried armed conflicts in different regions of the continent.
He said women and girls were the first victims indiscriminately in their different statuses as mothers, wives, sisters and daughters.
“Plunged into total destitution, they often lack everything, and more serious, they are often even deprived of their own bodies, used for mercantile and war purposes.
“These hotbeds of violence are certainly only the tree that hides the forest of unspeakable and ineffable suffering which overwhelms the daily lives of thousands, indeed millions of women around the world, like the massacred and dehumanised Palestinian women.
“Such a context, darkened by violence of all kinds, is unfortunately not conducive to the implementation of this global theme of the year.”
He said with the implementation of the policy on Positive Masculinity, through the convening of annual meetings, at the level of Heads of State and Government, leaders demonstrated permanent mobilisation towards a significant reduction, and total abolition of violence against women and young girls, through the adoption of appropriate legislation.
On his part, the urgent task that challenged the world is that of “silencing the guns,” promoting good democratic and economic governance, and striving to restore social peace by building it together.
Only then, he said, will we be ready to establish an environment conducive to the development of women and young girls.
“I salute the dynamism of our mothers, sisters, wives and daughters, whether in rural areas or cities.
“I salute their remarkable resilience and the efforts they make to safeguard the balance of their respective families, through countless sacrifices wherever they are,” Mahamat said.
