/ 15 December 2010

Gadaffi calls for single African army

Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi pushed again on Tuesday his dream for a sole African government and was backed by Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade as he urged the creation of a single African army.

Dressed in flowing gold robes, Libya’s maverick leader told a ceremony at a festival in Senegal celebrating black identity and culture that Africa was “experiencing a new submissiveness”.

He described the continent as “prey that all the world’s wolves want to devour” by monopolising its mineral resources or fisheries.

Army to consist of a ‘million soldiers’
“Down with imperialism! Africa must unite, so that we do not again become serfs or slaves,” he said.

“It is necessary to establish a unity government for the African continent and that Africa has one army … which could consist of a million soldiers,” he said.

“Even the South African army is worthless to Nato or the United States of America. Even Libya is not even able to protect its territorial waters alone.”

Kadhafi (68) appeared to improvise his speech, which was made in Arabic and translated simultaneously into French.

The Senegalese leader said: “We ask, here and now, for the establishment of the United States of Africa, the only solution to free our peoples and … make Africa a major cultural, economic, political and social whole which will be respected.”

The presidents spoke in front of several hundred young people gathered on stairs leading to a massive bronze African Renaissance statue built by North Korea and inaugurated in April for the 50th anniversary of Senegal’s independence.

Also present were Guinea-Bissau President Malam Bacai Sanha, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Cape Verde President Pedro Pires. – AFP