As a co-founder of Médecins Sans Frontières, Bernard Kouchner, the new foreign minister of France from the socialist party to serve the centre-right government of Nicolas Sarkozy, has a passion for humanitarian issues. Developments in Darfur, Sudan, Chad and Somalia are his major concerns that brought him to Addis Abeba last week, to confer with Africa Union (AU) commissioner Alfa Omar Conare and UNECA’s executive secretary, Abdoulie Janneh.

 

He believes the peace process to resolve the crises in Darfur is not going fast enough, while he would like to see the inclusion of leaders from the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) in Somalia’s peace process. It was the first time since 1997 for a Foreign Minister from France to visit Addis Abeba, according to French diplomatic sources. He flew from Tripoli, Libya, the same day, where President Sarkozy was having his first African visit since elected to the presidency this year.

“We are not having a new strategy [on Africa], but a new government,” he told journalists at the French Embassy here on Thursday, July 26, responding to questions about  what could be in store for Africa under the new government.

The Foreign Minister has also met with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi; he proposed to him to establish a business commission that may have offices both in Paris and Addis Abeba.

Foreign Minister Kouchner flew on Thursday, July 26, to Beirut, Lebanon, where he will join his President. In the photo, he spoke to an audience inside Ambassador Stéphane Gompertz’s (right) residence. (Compiled by Girmay Brehane, Fortune Staff Writer)