In an urgent message addressed to the 5th Summit of the African and European Unions in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, EPDP Chairman Menghesteab Asmerom asked AU-EU delegation in the Summit to consider the plight of huge numbers of displaced Eritrean youth as a priority problem in Africa and address it properly based on UN Human Rights Commission decisions and recommendations. The two-day AU-EU Summit opening in Abidjan today, 29 November, is convening under the theme of "Investing in the Youth for Sustainable Future".

Addressed to African Union Commission Chairman, Mr. Mousa Faki Mahamat, and to Ms. Federica Mogherini, EU High Representative and head for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, with copies to several heads of AU-EU delegations, the EPDP message of 28 November hailed the choice of the theme for the summit. It hoped that the that the summit will measure up to that noble aim by tackling the challenges facing African youth in extremely dire situations like the human slave-trading 'markets' of Libya, the Holot concentration camp of Israel and similar refugee conditions in Africa and southern Europe. Likewise, the message did not fail to stress the fact that the majority of those youth in these unbearable situations come from small Eritrea which leads the entire continent in everything bad.

The message highlighted the abuses of the illegitimate and repressive regime in Eritrea and reminded African and European delegations that the ruling clique in Asmara " does not deserve the acceptance and appeasement it is starting to enjoy nowadays from the EU and other quarters".

The EPDP message also stressed the importance of bringing to accountability the perpetrators of crimes against humanity in Eritrea and that effective pressure on the Asmara regime will include helping in the "most immediate implementation of the recommendations of the UN Human Rights Council adopted in 2016 and 2017."

"Eritreans and the rest of Africans would agree that investing in the youth for sustainable future is a great theme, but in order to give some meaning to the theme, those youth must first be helped to remain at home", the EPDP message added. 

The two-day AU-EU Summit meeting for 29-30 November is expected to discuss the future of EU-African relations, focusing on investing in youth who constitute 60% of the African population under the age of 25. Other issues to be discussed will include peace and security, investment and trade, job creation, skills development and of course  governance (including democracy, human rights, migration and mobility).