His Excellency Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma has received in audience the Chairman of the African Union Commission, Dr. Jean Ping, who was on a working visit to Freetown, Sierra Leone on Wednesday 27th June.

Welcoming Dr. Jean Ping, President Koroma reminded him that he was once more in his home where he used to spend his holidays as a civil servant. The President maintained that Freetown and Libreville, where the Chairman came from, have a common history in the African Continent for housing freed slaves, while adding that Libreville means in French, Freetown.

President Koroma assured the AU Chairman that he and his colleagues in Economic Community of West African (ECOWAS) were pre-occupied with searching for lasting solutions to the challenges besetting Mali and Guinea Bissau.

The President pointed out that indeed the two issues will form part of the agenda in Friday's ECOWAS meeting in Yamoussoukro. He wished the African Union Chairperson well in his endeavours in steering the ship of the African Union to calm the seas.

AU Commission Chairman Dr. Jean Ping said he was in Sierra Leone to express the African Union's concerns over the continuing governance problems in Mali and Guinea Bissau.

He urged that ECOWAS as a regional body be given all the support by all the institutions, especially the African Union and the United Nations to work out acceptable and enduring solutions to the problems in the region. Dr. Jean Ping also expressed hope that President Koroma attends the next mid-year Summit in July to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Chairman of the AU Commission Dr. Jean Ping left Freetown for Monrovia where he was expected to meet with Her Excellency Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of the Republic of Liberia.