Africa, Featured
By Anthony Isibor
AS African leaders gather in Addis Ababa for this year’s African Union Summit, Union leaders believe that the highly volatile security situations in the region should be top on the list of issues to be discussed.
Murithi Mutiga, Programme Director, Africa, explains that with violence escalating in many parts of Africa and the risk of inter-state war growing, this year’s AU summit presents a critical opportunity for member states to tackle the many challenges facing the continent.
“While financial and political constraints have limited the AU’s ability to meet its commitments to mediation and peacekeeping, the body still plays an important role in advancing African perspectives in global debates and addressing obstacles to continental peace and security. Member states should use the moment to lay out a roadmap for the year ahead and shore up the body’s capacity to act effectively for peace.”
Linslade Louw-Vaudran, Senior Adviser, African Union also feels the same way as he insists that “African leaders gathering for the AU Summit in Addis Ababa this weekend should use this opportunity to deal with Africa’s many dire conflicts. They should bolster diplomacy to avert escalation in the Great Lakes. They should do everything possible to end the war in Sudan. A new AU panel for Sudan was appointed last month that could steer AU efforts and work with others, such as the UN special envoy for Sudan. The AU should also keep channels of communication open with countries in the Sahel and put Cameroon’s Anglophone conflict on the agenda.”
Revealing its priority for African Union in 2024, the International Crisis Group identifies eight tasks in particular that need the organisation’s time and attention.
The list which it says is neither exhaustive nor intended to be, is aimed at suggesting an agenda for the coming year that considers – among other things – which crises appear most threatening to regional stability, pose the greatest risk of humanitarian catastrophe or seem most amenable to resolution with the AU’s assistance. New conflicts can and likely will emerge, and old ones flare, in ways that will command the AU’s attention.
It’s area of priority includes:
1. 1. Better dealing with democratic backsliding;
2. Stepping up to help save Sudan;
3. Preserving Ethiopia’s stability;
4. Averting escalation between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda;
5. Reinvigorating diplomacy in the central Sahel;
6. Putting Cameroon’s Anglophone conflict on the agenda;
7. Refreshing a key partnership in Somalia; and
8. Helping South Sudan steer safely toward elections.
To achieve this, the group called on the AU to find a way to better navigate disputes between two of its biggest funders, Morocco and Algeria, which are preventing it from running smoothly.
According to the report, the quarrels are grounded in geopolitics: “Rabat considers Western Sahara to be part of its own territory, but Algiers backs the Sahrawis led by the Polisario Front, which has proclaimed it independent,” it said.
“This longstanding disagreement has spilled over into the selection process for a new AU chairperson – a largely ceremonial but potentially influential role that rotates each year among five regions. At the start of the 2024 Summit, the current chair, Comorian President Azali Assoumani, is due to hand over the position to a candidate from North Africa. Both Morocco and Algeria were possible candidates for the job, which led to an impasse. Mauritania has been floated as a possible compromise.
“Against this backdrop, member states should focus on two goals. The immediate priority should be to encourage North African states to unify behind a candidate and not allow arguments over the chair’s appointment to derail the summit. The longer-term priority is to encourage Algeria and Morocco to set aside their zero-sum thinking when they engage in AU decision-making. Too often, Algiers and Rabat reflexively oppose what the other supports. While getting them to change may be a long shot, member states with influence in these capitals should impress on them the costs of their dispute to the region and encourage them to find a modus vivendi that will allow the AU to pursue its mandate more effectively.
“Secondly, the organisation will also begin the important process of choosing a new AU Commission chairperson, who will replace incumbent Moussa Faki Mahamat. Unlike the AU chairperson, the Commission chairperson has a four-year term and runs the organisation’s secretariat, the repository of its institutional expertise. The new chair will be selected at the next AU Summit, in 2025, as will the deputy and six commissioners, who together with the chair make up the Commission’s top leadership. In an effort to ensure that candidates are chosen on merit and not solely through deal making between states and regions, the AU decided to set up a panel of eminent persons that will vet candidates and draw up a shortlist. By the end of 2023, however, only three of Africa’s five regions had met the deadline to submit a candidate to serve on the panel. The lag does not bode well for a smooth process or an optimal outcome.
“The future chairperson of the commission should be someone with gravitas and all the necessary skills and experience to bridge the many linguistic and regional divides in the AU. She or he should be able to carry the AU through what is likely to be a very challenging few years and represent the continent globally at a time when visionary leadership is sorely needed. Countries have until May 2024 to put candidates forward. In choosing names, they should look not only to former heads of state and foreign ministers, but also to Africans who have excelled at statecraft in other domains, such as in the UN system. For purposes of balanced representation, they should widen the pool to include as many women as possible.
“Finally, if African states want the AU to succeed, then stepping up their own commitment to the organisation can only help. The continent’s leaders expect a lot from the AU, but often hesitate to give it firm political backing or enough financial support. The new UN financing mechanism will help pay for peace missions, but it will only cover up to 75 per cent of the cost, leaving the continent to fill the gap with its own funds or seek external support. If self-sufficiency is the goal, then member states – particularly those with the largest economies – will have to dig deeper. More financial support for the organisation’s diplomatic capacity would also enhance its effectiveness. AU offices around the continent are poorly staffed, and envoys lack basic travel budgets, as has been the case with the Sahel envoy.
“The more the AU and its member states can do to address these challenges quickly and effectively, the better placed the organisation will be to meet the overlapping peace, security and governance challenges that face it in the coming year,” it added.
A.I
Tags: African Union Murithi Mutiga
