Zambia delegate at ACP-EU talks passes away
Zambia Member of Parliament Chosani Njobvu unexpectedly passed away here on Wednesday while attending a joint meeting of parliaments in Africa, the Caribbean, the Pacific and the European Union.
According to the organizers, Mr Njobvu was found dead in his Ljubljana hotel room on Wednesday morning. The cause of death remains to formally established.
Mr Njobvu, aged 62, was an MP for the United National Independence Party (UNIP) in Zambia and was last elected into the national assembly for the Milanzi constituency in 2006.
UNIP is the party that governed Zambia from 1964 to 1991 under then-president Kenneth Kaunda. The party played a background role in the 2006 election, according to the Wikipedia website.
An agricultural engineer by background, Mr Njobvu was an author of several books on farming in developing countries. He taught at the University of Zambia in Lusaka and held a PhD.
The ACP-EU meeting will hold a moment of silence on Thursday. Wednesday night's ACP-EU reception was cancelled. The ACP-EU meeting ends on Thursday.
Talking on Tuesday, Mr Njobvu expressed concerns about the pressure that the European Commission was putting on countries in Africa to accept economic partnership agreements, known as EPAs.
"We need more time to understand the effects of EPAs," he said during a coffee break.
Europe's former colonies are reluctant to accept these trade agreements because they fear they will suffer economically from having to give up preferential access to European markets. Under rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO), such preferential treatment is no longer allowed.