NGOs ask Nobel Laureate to crusade for African solidarity

NGO's in the Republic of Congo called on Kenyan Deputy Environment Minister Wangari Maathai on Friday to use her status as Nobel Peace Prize laureate to promote solidarity among African peoples, and so steer the continent away from war.

"We hope that from today we will direct our attention to reconciliation among Africans first, and then with other peoples of the world," Alphonse Loulendo, representing an NGO concerned with fighting poverty, the Cooperation for Innovation et Coopération pour le développement, said.

Since the end of Africa's anti-colonial wars of liberation 1980s, and in South Africa in 1990, most armed conflicts on the continent have become largely internal disputes over the control of resources. These wars, usually within an African state, have resulted in the deaths and displacement of millions of people.

"There cannot be peace without the equitable sharing of resources such as water and pasture. Most conflicts in Africa are a result of the poor distribution of resources," Maathai said.

It is as a result of these conflicts and the potential for new ones that the NGOs called on Maathai to use her position to end such suffering. The Republic of Congo also experienced two civil wars between 1998 and 2003.

Maathai, who was in Brazzaville for an African rainforest summit, met with several local NGOs on Friday for discussions on protecting the environment; peace and security; good government; and the war against corruption. Maathai, who had worked in environmental NGOs for some 28 years, told the NGOs: "We would like to have an environment where there are fewer conflicts because we are endowed with mineral and forestry wealth, but we are the porest continent. Our people are dying of hunger."

Speaking for NGOs and not as a minister, she outlined three main goals that Africa must achieve; peace, democracy and good government. She described them as "the three feet on which most African stools are built".

Maathai founded Kenya's Green Belt movement in 1977, which has planted at least 10 million trees in the battle against soil erosion and to provide firewood for the poor. She is the first woman in central or eastern Africa to hold a Ph.D., and the first African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize.