Africa is in the vile grip of insecurity. This was the verdict of the African Union, AU, Heads of State 39th Summit which held on 14 February in Addis Ababa. This should call for a state of emergency. But this was not part of the Summit outcome. It was business as usual.
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In the first place, the AU’s vehicle for combating insecurity and conflicts, is its Peace and Security Council, PSC, which is responsible for the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts in the continent. It is the continent’s “collective security and early warning arrangement intended to facilitate timely and efficient responses to conflict and crisis situations in Africa.”
However, the composition of the PSC does not place it in a position to be either effective or efficient. For instance, Morocco is the cause of some avoidable conflicts in the continent. First, for five decades now, it has been on war footing with its neigbours like Algeria and Westen Sahara. Its relations with Mauritania has also not been warm since 5 August, 1979 when the latter withdrew from its joint occupation of Sahrawi territories. So, the regional Arab Maghreb Union, AMU/UMA, which comprises Morocco, Algeria, Western Sahara, Tunisia and Libya and was designed to drive regional integration, peace and development, is in comatose. Its last full summit held from 2-3 April, 1994, that is 32 years ago! In 2024, other member countries began discussing the birth of a new regional body that would exclude Mauritania and troublesome Morocco.
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The Moroccan monarchy had pulled the country out of the OAU/AU for 33 years because it was told that it cannot colonise Western Sahara, a sister African country. Morocco has also consistently displayed disdain for Africa and has shamelessly begged to join the European Union, but has been rejected. So how can the AU put Morocco in the PSC and hope to tackle insecurity and negotiate peace in the continent?
The Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, is another member of the PSC. It is a country that has virtually been in multiple conflicts since its independence on 30 June, 1960. Today, it remains conflict-ridden with large parts in the hands of rebels backed by fellow African countries like Rwanda and Uganda. So, can such a country serve Africa with distinction in the PSC?
Perhaps the most insecure PSC member is Somalia which has been virtually a failed state since 1990. For many years, it has been split amongst Islamist fundamentalists and warring clans.
The worse nightmare Africa faces in Somalia is its breakaway region of Somaliland. It is an illegality which the European contraption in the Middle East, called Israel, now recognises as a sovereign state. Somaliland had declared itself independent over three decades ago, but no country had recognised what should pass as a joke until Israel did in December, 2025.
Israel’s goal is to expand its territories to include the West Bank, Gaza, Syria and Lebanon. So, it setting its sights on Somaliland is an indication that it eyes the African territory over which it may soon start making territorial claims.
The rapacious United Arab Emirates, UAE, has already made some claims on Somaliland, claiming to have purchased its Port of Berbera. To worsen matters, Ethiopia, the seat of the AU had also made claims it was buying parts of the Somaliland coastline, so it can have access to the sea. So, how useful can Somalia be in the PSC?
Beyond the AU’s composition of its peace and security outfit, is its infamous inability to implement its basic decisions which has affected peace keeping on the continent. For instance, while it declares the unconstitutional takeover of government illegal, coup plotters are never really held accountable. In fact, Egyptian leader, General Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, was an active coup plotter who should be under sanction. But in February 2019, he was made AU Chairman. So, a major challenge is how to call errant African leaders to order.
In the AU’s February Summit, Integration and Sustainable Development, Africa’s voice, Peace and Security were major issues discussed.
Integration, with a whole Magreb Region being unable to meet for over three decades, seems far. It is worsened with the binary split of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS. Africa’s voice has been virtually muted on the world stage. I am not sure many would hope that with the United Nations Secretary General António Guterres declaration at the summit that: “The absence of permanent African seats in the Security Council is indefensible”, the African voice will be louder.
The fact is that more African countries, including Nigeria are coming under the control of foreign countries like the United States, and more African voices are being muted.
So, a major issue is how can the AU bring men like Salva Kirr of South Sudan under control and discourage them from pushing their countries down the abyss? Far back in 2018, the AU Ad-hoc High Level Committee for South Sudan (C5) Plus laid out the plan for peace. Today, former Vice President and co-signatory of the Revitalisation Agreement, Riek Machar, sits in jail. The peace agreement itself, is said to be in critical condition, ICU, while an obviously sick President Kirr was shown at the AU shuffling on stage.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, one of the few remaining voices of conviction in the continent, boldly told Kirr and others at the Summit that there must be ceasefire in South Sudan and that all the actors in that country must “engage in an all-inclusive dialogue that will pave the way for free, inclusive and credible elections to end the long transition.” All listened, or so they appeared; but the AU does not appear to have the capacity to enforce the will of the African people.
A worse situation unfolds in Sudan where an opportunistic and incompetent military regime has since 15 April, 2023 been engaged in massacres with the murderous paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, RSF. The latter, supported and funded by the UAE, had been partially built with funds from the European Union. The latter had hired the former terrorist Janjaweed group to prevent by any means necessary, so-called migrants from crossing to Europe.
So, the AU that met this month is a broken one that does not appear to be in a position to be able to mend itself. Some AU members who should have vision and mobilise for a better Africa, are engaged in what I consider the celebration of mundane things. For instance, the Nigerian Government has not stopped celebrating its appointment as a permanent member on the Board of the African Central Bank. Faced with a broken world, Africa has to start by mending itself.
Owei Lakemfa, a former secretary general of African workers, is a human rights activist, journalist and author.
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