President Jacob Zuma of South Africa has joined with Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe in boycotting the EU-Africa summit taking place in Brussels, but has sent minister from Pretoria to attend the event.
The EU-Africa summit is a gathering of 90 countries from two continents attended by 65 heads of states and government.
This years theme is “Investing in People, Prosperity and Peace“, participants will discuss topics including peace, security, investment, climate change and migration. Previous summits took place in Cairo (2000), Lisbon (2007) and Tripoli (2010).
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe boycotted the summit after his wife was denied a visa to enter Europe.
Robert Mugabe further urged the African Union to shun the summit for failing to invite all the Africa bloc’s leaders and lift a ban on Zimbabwe’s first lady.
An Invvitation extended to Sudan was shunned by its President, Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for so called human rights atrocities.
Ethiopia’s neighbor Eritrea has also been barred from attending the summit because of its human rights record,.
However, it is believed Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta, who is battling a crimes against humanity case at the ICC, is scheduled to attend the meeting.
