UN General Assembly
2009

divert the waters of the Oubangui River in the Central African Republic to feed Lake Chad. At the initiative of His Excellency the President of the Republic, the Head of State, Chad has committed to planting 10 million trees a year to fight desertification. That programme, which is part of the transcontinental project of the Green Great Wall initiated by the Community of Sahelo-Saharan States, needs the international community’s support. Turning to the issue of the settlement of disputes, while we welcome the progress made here and there, that is unfortunately not the case for the situation prevailing in Darfur, which is of serious concern to my Government. Regarding the African continent, we reaffirm our support and our readiness to contribute to all joint actions of the African Union and the United Nations for the peaceful and lasting settlement of those conflicts. Indeed, we welcome the initiative recently undertaken by the Leader of the Libyan Revolution, President of the African Union, to convene in Tripoli a special meeting devoted to the consideration and settlement of conflicts in Africa.