Munyonyo, Uganda (CNN) -- Heads of 35 African nations observed two minutes of silence Sunday to honor more than 70 people killed in terrorist bomb blasts in Uganda earlier this month as the African Union summit opened.
"Our condolences go to the people of Uganda for the tragic loss of lives following that tragic incident," said Bingu Wa Mutharika, AU chairman and Malawian president.
"Terrorism has no place in Africa; it has no place in the developing world," he said. "Let us all condemn these acts".
The summit, which formally opened Sunday following a week of conferences, is being held at a resort hotel in Munyonyo, about 12 kilometers south of the Ugandan capital of Kampala on the shore of Lake Victoria. On July 11, three bombs at two sites in Kampala killed 74 people and injured more than 80. Many of the victims had gathered to watch the World Cup finals.
The Al-Shabaab militant group, which is currently battling the weak transitional government in war-torn Somalia, claimed responsibility for the bombings, saying they were in retaliation for Uganda's contribution of troops for peacekeeping operations in Somalia. About 6,000 Ugandan and Burundian troops were deployed for the peacekeeping mission more than two years ago in the Horn of Africa nation, which has been at war for more than a decade.
Mutharika, in his remarks, stopped short of making any commitment toward AU peacekeeping missions in Somali and the Darfur region of Sudan. However, AU Commission Chairman Jean Ping said on Friday that Guinea and Djibouti have battalions of soldiers ready to be be deployed to Somalia.
CNN
