JUST IN: List Of African Leaders In Paris For World War I Event, Peace Forum

World leaders are meeting in the French capital, Paris, for a peace meeting. The event is tied to the commemoration of the centenary of World War I.

A number of African leaders have since late last week flown into Paris to join their colleagues from other parts of the world. French President Macron has been joined by around 70 leaders for the forum.

Dubbed the Paris Peace Forum, it started from November 11 and will run till November 14, 2018. Leaders are expected to share their views during the forum.

The aim of the forum is to show that there are lots of forces in the international system — states, NGOs, foundations, intellectuals, companies — who believe we need a world of rules, an open world and a multilateral world.

The list of African leaders attending the event spans across the different continental blocs. It, however, has leaders of Francophone Africa in the majority.

African leaders in Paris for meeting

• Alassane Ouattara, Ivory Coast
• Mahamadou Issoufou, Niger
• Idris Deby Itno, Chad
• Ismail Omar Guelleh, Djibouti
• Alpha Conde, Guinea
• Roch March Kabore, Burkina Faso
• Denis Sassou Nguesso, Congo Republic
• Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, Mauritania
• Faustin Archange Touadera, Central African Republic
• Macky Sall, Senegal
• Azali Assoumani, Comoros
• King Mohammed of Morocco
• Fayyez Al-Sarraj, Head of Libya’s unity government
• President Essebsi of Tunisia
• Paul Kagame, Rwanda and current African Union chair
• Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya

Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari was however conspicuously missing from the event as he was no where to be seen in all the major video clips that featured leaders from around the world who were evidently present in the venue of the peace meeting.

ORIENTAL Times had on Monday posted a “little snapshot” which it erroneously believed was taken during the event.

On the other hand, the President’s handlers had also released photos purportedly showing Buhari in the midst of other world leaders at the global event in the French capital, but the photos which Nigerians widely believe is a ‘make-believe’ appeared to be old photos of the President taken during the Commonwealth meeting which held in April 2018.

Meanwhile, the African Union Commission, and United Nations chairpersons, Moussa Faki Mahamat and Antonio Guterres are also in attendance. Other leaders attending include US and Russian Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

The leaders met to mark 100 years since the end of World War I at a time of growing nationalism and diplomatic tensions. 2018 marks the centenary of the 1918 Armistice in the French capital.

British Prime Minister Theresa May and Queen Elizabeth attended a separate event in London, while New Zealand and Australia are holding their own ceremonies.