African Union (AU) Heads of State and Government have approved Kiswahili as one of the bloc’s official working languages following a request from Vice-President Dr. Phillip Mpango.
Dr. Mpango had suggested that Kiswahili is one of the most widely spoken languages in Africa with about 100 million people within and outside the continent.
“Kiswahili is already in use in various communities including the East African Community (EAC), the Southern African Development Community (SADC) as well as a teaching language in many African countries,” he said.
Also, he said the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared July 7 as the World Kiswahili Language Day.
The two-day summit also addressed the impact of COVID-19 on the continent and the urgent need to mitigate the emerging scourge of unconstitutional changes of governments and the scourge of terrorism across the continent.
In the course, Tanzania was elected to be a member of the African Union’s Peace and Security Council.
The AU’s Peace and Security Council is a 15-member organ composed of member states from each of the five regions of the bloc, and it is the African Union’s standing decision-making body for the prevention, management, and resolution of conflicts on the continent.