Fifty years since African leaders gathered enthusiastically to launch a common bloc, heads of state will meet this weekend to celebrate despite a patchy record and still struggling efforts to unite the continent. Today's 54-member African Union (AU) is the successor of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), established amid the heady days as independence from colonial rule swept the continent in 1963.

The special envoy of the African Union Commission (AU) chairperson who is also the head of the International Support Mission for Mali (MISMA), said on Friday that besides the expected UN forces, there will be a parallel support force to make the operations in Mali more offensive. While addressing the press in Bamako, Pierre Buyoya reiterated that the MISMA forces will soon be transformed into a United Nations (UN) peace keeping force. "We should first wait for a new UN Security Council resolution," he said while also noting that already there is a report of the UN secretary gen

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African President Jacob Zuma will attend a summit of central African heads of state in Chad on Wednesday which will consider responses to the rebel takeover in Central African Republic. The South African leader was invited by Chadian President Idriss Deby, chair of the 10-nation Economic Community of Central African States, to join the extraordinary ECCAS summit in N'Djamena on April 3, Zuma's spokesman Mac Maharaj said.

The United States expressed concern Sunday over worsening violence in the Central African Republic and urged its neighbors to "help restore national peace and security." "The United States is deeply concerned about the continued deterioration in the security situation in the Central African Republic (CAR)," the US State Department said in a statement. "We call on President (Francois) Bozize and the leadership of the Seleka alliance to cease hostilities immediately and implement the provisions of the Libreville Agreement," it said.