Stronger EU-Africa ties could stem crises

Europe needs to find a new way of working with Africa to prevent famines and other crises repeatedly occurring, Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney has said.

He said that may require the development of new structures or even a new institution to ensure proper dialogue and co-operation between the EU and the African Union.

“Who would have thought that in 2017, with the combined global wealth that is now there, we would have four famines at the same time — in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan, and in the Lake Chad region — affecting more than 20m people, 70% of them children,” he said.