Liesl Louw-Vaudran
Africa-Press – Mauritius. The African Union (AU) holds its annual summit this weekend in Addis Ababa, gathering heads of state from across the continent to discuss Africa’s many peace and security challenges.
Escalating conflict is threatening thousands of lives and the incomes of many more, from a devastating civil war in Sudan to rebellions in the Great Lakes region that are stoking tensions between AU member states.
Elsewhere, political upheaval and armed conflict have undermined security alliances and regional cooperation. An array of outside powers is meanwhile jostling for influence in the continent, making African diplomacy ever more complicated.
The AU has ambitious institutional commitments and tools for mediation and peacekeeping, but it often lacks the political and financial strength to make the most of them.
The 17-18 February summit presents African leaders with an opportunity to reflect on the continent’s various crises and show unity of purpose based on shared commitments to peace and security.
Recent developments, such as Sudan suspending its Intergovernmental Authority on Development membership and Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger withdrawing from the Economic Community of West African States, show that regional cooperation is crumbling, making the AU’s traditional conflict resolution tools less effective.
The AU should therefore urgently bolster its capacity for mediation and diplomatic engagement. In Crisis Group’s annual Eight Priorities for the AU in 2024, we examine what the continental body can do to stave off further conflict.
The report looks at the AU’s handling of military coups, the wars in Sudan and Ethiopia, friction between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda, and insurgencies in the Sahel, Somalia and Cameroon.
Despite its institutional strength and crucial peace-making mandate, the AU has a budget of little over $600m a year for its activities. Many of its offices are under-resourced.
East African Regional Force (EACRF) soldiers guard Rumangabo camp after the meeting between EACRF officials and M23 rebels during the handover ceremony in eastern DRC on Jan 6, 2023.
(Photo by Guerchom Ndebo / AFP) The AU Commission has only a small mediation unit that has tried to calm post-election disputes where they have taken place.
The unit works together with members of the Panel of the Wise, a small but senior conflict prevention group, whose members also serve as heads of AU election observation missions.
African leaders should use the 17-18 February summit to provide direction to the AU Commission and channel more resources to initiatives that help bolster peace and security.
The AU’s inaction vis-à-vis the civil war in Sudan was a wake-up call to many who believed that the organisation would step up to lead and coordinate mediation, as it did in 2019 after long-time leader Omar al-Bashir’s ouster.
In many of Africa’s conflicts, peace-making focuses on getting the warring parties to the negotiating table. But in Sudan, efforts by the regional bloc IGAD, Saudi Arabia and the U. S.
have thus far failed to convince the two main belligerents — General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Rapid Support Forces leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo — to meet face to face, let alone agree to a ceasefire.
The determination of the Sudanese generals to fight it out has made it extremely difficult for anyone, including the lead negotiators from the U. S. and Saudi Arabia, to broker a truce.
But the AU, led by AU Commission chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat, should have stayed more engaged in international efforts to stop the fighting. It did not follow through on initial ideas to coordinate and unite those involved in the Sudanese conflict.
In a positive step, albeit a belated one, the AU has finally appointed a high-level panel for Sudan, led by veteran negotiator Mohamed Ibn Chambas. The panel should work closely with the UN envoy for Sudan, Ramtane Lamamra, an old AU hand, to try and stop the war.
They will have to navigate difficult circumstances and contend with many actors, including the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and Egypt. This will be no easy task, but it is extremely urgent.
Heads of state at the summit should strongly support the AU’s peace efforts in Sudan. AU leaders could also step in to de-escalate tensions in the Great Lakes.
The DRC and Rwanda each accuse each other of supporting rebel groups in the country’s east. So far, military operations have been unable to quell these rebellions, and acrimony between the DRC and Rwanda is mounting.
The East African Community (EAC) deployed forces for twelve months before President Félix Tshisekedi asked them to leave, saying they were ineffective. In parallel, the EAC launched the Nairobi Process to coordinate talks with armed groups in the east.
Angola’s President João Lourenço has meanwhile tried to keep channels of communications open between all Great Lakes countries through the Luanda Process.
Today, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is providing a 5,000-strong force to replace the East African mission, with the first soldiers sent to the eastern city of Goma in December 2023. It remains unclear whether this force can fare better, given that is up against an array of armed groups, including the Rwanda-backed M23.
The AU has not weighed in on these deployments or convinced SADC – a region historically set on acting independently – to explore options for a political process that could convince these armed groups to hand in their weapons.
The AU should get more involved in peace talks in the Great Lakes region. At the summit, leaders should show that they are concerned about the growing tensions between Kinshasa and Kigali.
The AU must also call on leaders in the region to stop arming rebels and recruiting mercenaries. The AU needs to deal with this crisis publicly during the opening sessions of the summit, as well as at closed-door discussions with all the relevant actors.
When a new crisis emerges, AU officials and diplomats start searching for influential African leaders who can help find solutions. Nigeria’s former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, is one such figure, serving as the AU’s special envoy for the Horn of Africa.
Yet Obasanjo jokingly told an audience on the margins of the AU’s mid-year summit in July that he is “in the departure lounge”. He is still at work, in a sparsely staffed mediation field.
Many former AU directors and ambassadors are still very active in public life, but they would need support to step in as effective peace-makers. The AU’s special envoys and high representatives are all too often understaffed and lack travel budgets.
For example, the head of the AU’s Sahel office in the Malian capital Bamako reportedly resigned in August 2023 because he did not have a budget to perform his duties.
The office has not had a new chief since, even though the region is plagued by jihadist insurgencies and in political turmoil following a series of military coups.
Ideally, funding for these senior positions should come from the AU’s Peace Fund, which currently has close to $400m in its coffers. While that may be insufficient to fund large-scale military missions, it is enough to bolster other AU peace and security activities.
The AU’s important role in advancing African perspectives in global debates was recognised in September 2023, when the G20 forum of the world’s largest economies accepted the organisation as a permanent member.
When addressing continental peace and security challenges, it should show more muscle and unity, and refuse to be shown the door by conflict actors or mediators. This weekend’s summit is an important chance to strengthen its commitment to peace-making in an increasingly fragmented world.
Source:Theafricareport
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