Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema did not specifically mention Libya, but the ongoing NATO airstrikes against the regime of Muammar Qaddafi have been at the forefront of this week’s AU summit.

The AU has come out forcefully against the bombardment, saying the airstrikes violate the terms of the United Nations resolution authorizing the military intervention that was intended to protect civilians.

Obiang argued in his address to the AU summit that non-African countries are intervening in the continent’s problems under the cover of human rights, only to cause further abuse.

“The intervention for human rights are nowadays causing a massive scourge,” he said speaking in Spanish, the national language of Equatorial Guinea. “The uncounted number of victims, among them women and children, displaced people and the destruction of economic infrastructure does not justify such interventions. Instead of providing solutions to problems we are complicating and worsening world conflicts.”

Human rights groups also accuse Obiang of violating human rights during his more than three decades in power, saying he has made himself and his family fabulously wealthy while the majority of people in the oil-rich Central African nation struggle in deep poverty.

Although the AU’s position has been largely one supporting Qaddafi, diplomats attending the conference say the mood is changing, especially following the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue a warrant for Qaddafi’s arrest on charges of crimes against humanity.

More than 30 African countries are ICC member states and would be required to arrest Qaddafi on their soil, though Kenya already has allowed Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir to visit without being detained, even though he is also the subject of an arrest warrant by the international court.

Britain’s Minister for Africa Henry Bellingham said he met with many of the foreign ministers of the 53 member nations attending the conference, and found that even those that were previously reluctant to call for Qaddafi’s ouster are now privately agreeing that he should go.

“I believe there is certainly a change in the whole perception of Qaddafi. We are in a very different position to the one we were in just five, six weeks ago. Then we were talking about a stalemate. Now there’s no stalemate. Qaddafi is losing his grip,” Bellingham said.

The wave of popular protest that has swept across the northern part of the continent has been discomforting for many of Africa’s entrenched rulers including Equatorial Guinea’s Obiang.

In the past month there have been signs that the Arab Spring may be shifting south after dictators were toppled in Tunisia and Egypt.

This year’s AU summit was forced to go ahead without one of its most prominent members, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, who is facing the biggest challenge of his 11-year rule.

Considered one of the few stable democracies in the region, Senegal went up in flames last week after Wade attempted to push through a change to the constitution that would have made it possible for him to hand power to his unpopular son.

Wade was forced to reverse course after thousands of livid demonstrators seized control of the capital’s downtown district, and attacked the homes of parliamentarians expected to vote in favor of the bill.