Africa24 Media Journalist Says Doubt about Holding AU Summit In Addis Debunked as City Is Safe

African leaders are holding meetings in Addis Ababa, a city where three or four months ago a lot of people doubted could host meetings, a journalist from Africa24 Media told ENA.

The journalist, Ahmed Ibrahim, who is here to cover the African Union Summit for the second time, said many doubted that the African Union Summit will be held in Addis Ababa.

“But now we see that Addis Ababa is a safety city and the people are really very nice and very friendly,” he added.

Ibrahim commended the Government of Ethiopia and the people for their commitment and effort for the success of this summit.

Commenting on the international media he stated that they always have issues and agendas. So it the responsibility of Ethiopian and the African media to produce news from African perspective.

Some of the international media are producing fake news, the journalist noted, adding that it “is our responsibility as journalists to do fact checking before releasing any news on Ethiopia or  Africa.”

Furthermore, he stressed that the continent needs to develop and invest on the people.

“If we invest on people we can get education, we can get safety, we can get health care, and  build our nation and all African countries.”

According to him, the other main issue facing Africa is security. Thus security issues need to be discussed seriously by African leaders.

“If the African leaders agree to have security issues in this summit, talk about it and solve the problems, I believe nations will find it very easy to cope with that idea.”

Moreover, the journalist pointed out that the continent has immense natural resources and using all these resources together as nations can be beneficial.

Ibrahim plans to visit other parts of Ethiopia after covering summit.

“I have a plan to visit cities like Bahir Dar, Gondar or other areas in Ethiopia. So, hopefully we can go around and visit more areas in Ethiopia after the meeting.”

The 40th ordinary session of the African Union (AU) Executive Council kicked off today in Addis Ababa.