African Leaders Discuss Tackling AIDS, Malaria, Polio

ABUJA, Nigeria, Jan 31, 2005 (AP) – African leaders at a continent-wide summit grappled Monday with how to halt the spread of diseases that kill thousands of their people daily and hit economic growth across the world’s poorest continent, officials said.

Discussions among dozens of African leaders would center on fund-raising and better disbursement of money aimed at fighting AIDS, malaria and polio, said Adam Thiam, an official of the 53-nation African Union hosting the talks in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.

“The Abuja summit is going to be a decisive step in carrying on our combat against AIDS, malaria and polio,” maladies which act as a “brake on production” and further impoverish Africa, he said.

Some 3,000 African children under the age of five die each day from malaria, which also keeps many adult workers home with fever. Six thousand people die daily of AIDS in Africa.

Polio, all but eradicated in many African countries, spread across borders again last year from northern Nigeria, where wary religious leaders blocked immunization programs for months before relenting.

At least 40 of Africa’s 53 leaders were in Abuja for the twice-yearly, two-day summit, expected to end Monday.

Conflicts in Congo, Ivory Coast and Sudan took center stage Sunday, said Thiam.

The leaders, including U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and South African President Thabo Mbeki, were expected to continue discussions on how to boost their say in U.N. affairs, long dominated by the U.N. Security Council’s five permanent members – the U.K., China, France, Russia and the U.S.

One possible U.N. reform is expanding the Security Council, and Nigeria – the continent’s most populous nation and a regional political and military heavyweight – is one of the African countries angling for a permanent seat on a larger council.