Ghana’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, on Friday 29th August, 2026, addressed the African Union Executive Council’s 26th Extraordinary Session on Conflict Resolution and Prevention in Angola, where he called for the need African countries to recommit to job creation, industrialization, real decentralization, sharing the wealth of this continent.
He lamented the sad situation, where, just last month, there were images of over 72,000 of African youth desperately trying to enter Ceuta, Spain, and 111 of them died. He noted that, ‘as we speak, 600 million Africans do not have access to electricity. That is 43% of our population”.
He observed that, only last year, the International organization for Migration (IOM) reported that over 2,180 young Africans died in the Mediterranean looking for greener pastures.
To stem this sorry state of affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa called on African leaders “to recommit to job creation, industrialization, real decentralization, and sharing the wealth of this continent; the diamonds, the gold, the bauxite, the oil and gas that we have been blessed with”.
