Africa
“PROCESSES in Africa: Prospects for Sustainable Agreements to End Conflicts” Peace is the theme of the meeting organized by the Royal Institute of International Affairs, a London-based think tank better known as Chatham House, and the United Nations Development Program, UNDP, this Friday, February 14, 2025 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on the sidelines of the 38th Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union.
During this activity in which the President of the ECOWAS Commission and Commissioner Abdel Fatau Musah in charge of Political Affairs, Peace and Security of ECOWAS participated, African personalities, such as Mohamed Ibn Chambas and Professor Ibrahim Gambari, presented their experiences of peace negotiations on the African continent and the role played by local, regional and international actors.
In his presentation during this meeting, Omar Alieu Touray recalled the long and great experience of ECOWAS in peace agreements in West Africa, particularly in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau and Gambia.
For him, the main lessons learned from interventions and peace agreements can be summarized as: the problem of the belief by some that peace weakens their power, the problem of the commitment of the different parties who are hesitant during the conflict, the importance of reassuring the belligerents and applying punishments in the event of non-compliance with the agreements and finally the value and importance of an institution or a country whose mission must be to secure the peace agreement.
Mohamed Ibn Chambas, for his part, returned to the successes obtained within the framework of the peace negotiations in Mozambique, before mentioning his proposals for a lasting peace in Africa in particular: the involvement of young people and women in conflict resolution mechanisms, the harmonization of peace approaches, the prioritization of conflict prevention and the early warning system and finally, the neutrality and impartiality of mediators.
As for Professor Ibrahim Gambari, he deplored in his presentation, the large budget allocated to conflict resolution to the detriment of prevention. For him, it is essential to give priority to agreements and justice processes, to attack the primary causes of conflicts and to choose quality mediators.
The African Union, AU, “Silence the Guns” initiative, a key pillar of Agenda 2063, recognizes that ending conflict is imperative to ensuring the continent’s long-term economic prosperity and sustainable development. Yet these aspirations are increasingly threatened, as the number of active state conflicts in Africa has almost doubled since 2013, from 15 to 28.
Building on the findings of a forthcoming publication from a joint Chatham House-UNDP research project on peace processes in Africa: “Lesson Learned”, the Addis meeting highlighted the experience of peace negotiations in Africa and assessed the key factors contributing to the varying sustainability of peace on the continent. Discussions focused on the role of the AU and Regional Economic Communities, RECs, in achieving positive outcomes with the input of key partners and public figures, and how these actors can more effectively support conflict resolution and foster sustainable peace in protracted post-conflict transitions.
A.I
Feb. 17, 2025
Tags: ECOWAS Mohamed Ibn Chambas Omar Alieu Touray
