JOÃO MANUEL GONÇALVES LOURENÇO, President of Angola, said that “today, we are witnessing an attempt to undermine, ignore or even replace the role and importance of the United Nations in resolving the major issues that afflict humanity”.  Underlining his country’s deep commitment to finding solutions to conflicts in Africa, he said that, momentarily, the greatest effort is focused on the conflict developing in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, without neglecting those in Sudan and the Sahel region.  As part of the Luanda process, a ceasefire was reached east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  To consolidate the gains made, a proposal for a peace agreement has been put on the table by Angola, with the prospect of reaching an understanding that will justify the convening of a summit meeting to seal the signing of the definitive peace agreement between the two countries.

He further voiced deep concern over the situation in Sudan, where a violent war is raging with humanitarian consequences of dramatic proportions in the face of “a certain apathy” on the international community’s part. On the war against Ukraine, he said it has profoundly shaken stability and security in Europe, with strong repercussions for the rest of the world in terms of economic stability and food and energy security.  “Although increasingly sophisticated military means are being deployed in the theatre of operations, no military victory is in sight in this war,” he said.

Turning to the situation in Gaza, he said that although Israel has the right to protect its territory and guarantee the safety of its citizens, it also has the responsibility to prevent the genocide that the world is witnessing live and the attacks by settlers and expansion of settlements in the West Bank.  “It can no longer be allowed that in just 11 months, in a small territory with no escape, nearly 43,000 people are killed and that the perpetrators are not held accountable by the international community,” he asserted, voicing concern about the escalation and spread of this conflict.

He further spotlighted Angola’s National Development Plan, which has as its main axes the diversification of the economy, the reduction of public debt, the mobilization of domestic revenue and the optimization of public spending in the priority areas of health and education.  He pointed to the construction of water transfer systems for areas heavily affected by drought in southern Angola. Also, his country has made a tremendous public investment in the health sector, rapidly constructing hospital infrastructures.  He further highlighted Angola’s partnerships to ensure the operation of the Benguela Railway and the Lobito mineral and commercial ports as part of the major transnational transport and logistics project of the Lobito Corridor, which will ensure the faster, safer and more competitively priced transport of minerals and agricultural and industrial products produced in Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola across the Atlantic Ocean to the rest of the world.  “This is a catalysing project that will change the economic landscape in Angola and Southern Africa,” he added.