<<Print>>

The U.S President, Barack Obama has invited the President of Ghana, John Evans Atta Mills, and three other African leaders to join the upcoming G8 summit. According to a statement from the White House, the other African leaders include the Chairman of the African Union and President of Benin Yayi Boni, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, and Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete. Africa�s top leaders such as Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria and South Africa�s Jacob Zuma were conspicuously missing in the list for the 38th G8 summit being hosted by the United States for the first time since 2004. The summit will serve as a platform to discuss issues of food security facing the African continent, the White House said on Thursday. The summit is scheduled to come off on May 18 and 19 at Camp David - the country retreat of the President of the United States and his guests. It is located in low wooded hills about 100 kilometers north-northwest of Washington, D.C. The core participants of the summit are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom and the USA as well as the European Union. According to the statement, the meeting with the four African leaders will be "a discussion session on accelerating progress towards food security in Africa." Millions of people, especially those in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, have suffered from the worst drought in 60 years, which struck the Horn of Africa in 2011. In late April, the United States announced an additional US$ 120 million in aid to help the region to cope with the crisis, bringing the total U.S. aid to more than US$ 1.1 billion.