Soro and his legal team boycotted the trial, which lasted only a few hours, saying it was a ploy to keep him out of the election scheduled for October.

Guillaume Soro was the rebel leader who backed President Allasane Ouatarra in Cote’Ivoire’s second civil war a decade ago following Laurent Gbagbo’s refusal to accept defeat in the Presidential election.

He was made Prime Minister before falling out Ouatarra, who stands down in October after serving two terms.

Soro is accused of buying a house with government money.

His property in Abidjan has been confiscated and he has been stripped of civic rights for five years.

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He says won’t be returning home to face what he calls a baseless arrest warrant and will contest next year’s Presidential election from abroad.

Heading home last week, Guillaume Soro turned to Ghana when he heard that he faces arrest in Cote d’Ivoire.

Police have raided his party headquarters in Abidjan and arrested a number of his supporters.

He says the charges against him are not based on law but on a determination by President Alassane Ouattara not to allow his return to contest the 2020 election.

Soro, who was in France says he has not called for protection from that country

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There will be many alluring offers from the Kingdom that has a history of making promises that it fails to keep.

Hopefully, as a hard-nosed businessman,  Ramaphosa will see he should put them on hold.

Morocco  is currently looking to joining the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) which leading member Nigeria has indicated it will oppose.

Flushed with victory after being admitted to the African Union, Morocco is bent on being seen as a major player in Africa.

Customarily this entails hauling out the cheque book to buy what it wants.

According to Morocco’s state media, King Mohammed VI’s meeting in at the Africa Union European Union summit in Abidjan with President Jacob Zuma was master stroke.

There is considerable historical confusion about bilateral relations between Morocco and South Africa.

Playing fast and loose with the truth, Morocco thrives on such confusion.

It likes to talk about Morocco being readmitted to AU.

In fact is never was a member of the union.

It walked out of the AU’s predecessor, the Organization of African Unity when the continental body recognized the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic which is a country illegally occupied by Morocco in 1974 and held since then in defiance of the United Nations and the very AU it now belongs to.

So it was not surprising when Morocco humiliatingly failed to prevent the SADR attending the AU/EU summit.

According to South African officials there. King Mohammed was surprised at how vehemently African Nations insisted on the SADR being there.

They believe that the king was simply not informed of this by his officials who are afraid to tell him what they fear he might not want to hear.

So Morocco has become a new member of the AU, despite objections by South Africa and Nigeria.

The new continental body is adamant that the status of the SADR, which is a founder member of the AU, is not in any danger.

South Africa continues strongly to support the AU position that Morocco has to end Africa last colonial vestige and ends it occupation of the SADR.

Which makes it amusing that the Rabat regime should talk about upgrading relations with Pretoria.

The fact is, Morocco furiously withdrew its ambassador to South Africa 13 years ago when President Thabo Mbeki’s government finally kept Nelson Mandela’s promise and established diplomatic ties with with the SADR.

The Moroccan embassy still operates in Pretoria, sans ambassador.

There was no talk of readmitting a chief envoy from the kingdom when Zuma saw the king  in Abidjan.

The SADR has not objected to that meeting.

However, those who have followed Morocco’s duplicity over Western Sahara feel the timing was unfortunate.

It drew attention away from the Saharawi diplomatic victory of attending a summit with the European Union by making the meeting the story.

The king will seek to capitalise on this by seeking agreement  to send an ambassador.

Zuma, for as long as he is president, and Ramaphosa when he takes the reins should delay this.

Agreement from South Africa should come only once Morocco has at very least stopped seeking to elbow the SADR out of the AU.

Putting the ever-present diplomatic question: what’s in it for us? simply reinforces the case for playing a little hard ball.

Morocco has nothing to offer South Africa.

The idea of a north-south axis at the two ends of Africa is already being pursued by Algeria and Tunisia.

Morocco is not an economic power.

it diplomatic influence as a haven of stability in the Islamic world is fast being eroded.

This leaves it with nothing more on the table that oranges, dagga and bit of tourism.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime lists Morocco as the largest dagga exporter on the planet.

The US Drug Enforcement Agency calls it the largest supplier of dagga to Europe.

Hardly worth selling one’s principles for.

So, hamba kancane, Mr President.

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It could be approaching three-quarters of a million.

African Union Commission head Moussa Faki Mahamat has spoken to the Libyan authorities who’ve indicated they’re holding between 400 000 and 700 000 people that were stoped from making the hazardous Mediterranean crossing to Europe.

Aware of the global horror and condemnation following evidence that some of the detainees have been sold into slavery, the Libyans are desperate to end the problem.

They’re saying a camp in Tripoli holding  3 800 people must be emptied as soon as possible.

Mahamat says he’s been told there are 42 more camps – some  with even more desperate  captives.

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police and military action against human traffickers to combat the slave trading of migrants being held in Libya.

The issue is dominating the Africa European summit in Abidjan that Macron’s attending as part of his first African safari.

French President Emmanuel Macron says human trafficking is a criminal offense.

It is not enough for African and European leaders to denounce it.

They must act collectively against the perpetrators who are operating in the  Sahel all the way to Libya.

Macron says he’s having having further meetings with EU and AU representatives to propose taking police and military action against traffickers.

In Burkina Faso on his way to Abidjan Macron said he is from a generation that does not tell Africa what but prefers to build strong partnerships.

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The three organizations will accelerating the assisted voluntary returns to countries of origin, and the resettlement of those in need of international protection.

The plight of would-be migrants from Africa to Europe dominates discussion among delegates at the African Union European Union summit in Abidjan.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio  Guterres who has come to pay tribute to what calls a strong and essential pillar of global coopertion, recognizes this

He says its vital to combat traffickers and smugglers of migrants but the tragedies in the Mediterranean will not end without the creation of significant opportunities for legal migration.

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African leaders say their warnings of dire conditions in Libyan camps housing would-be migrants to Europe have not been heeded.

African leaders are demanding action after seeing shocking footage of young people detained by Libyan authorities being sold at a slave auction.

France has called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

African leaders will need more than this if the central theme of the AU EU summit in Abidjan, which is empower the continent’s  youth and using it  to create economic growth and opportunity is be more than merely sloganising.

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He’s one of five African Presidents who’ll address the African Union/ European Union summit in the Ivorean capital.

More than 80 countries are represented at the summit in Abidjan today marking ten years of  this closer cooperation between the neighbouring continents.

President Jacob Zuma will lead the discussion on African security where funding from the United Nations and the European Union to peacekeeping mission is being cut.

Zuma will acknowledge Africa’s commitment to pay a quarter of the bill.

But he’ll urge the UN to accept its primary responsibility in these operations and to act more quickly in putting out the fires than endanger regional peace and security.

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