African Union @ 20: Addressing Peace and Security Challenges on the Continent
The African Union (AU) marks its 20th anniversary this year, marking two decades of searching for African solutions for African problems. The establishment of the AU on 9 July 2002 was a moment of hope and optimism.1 Over the years, the African Union has struggled hard to deal with the surfeit of challenges emerging on the continent. The recent COVID-19 pandemic and continuous conflicts in some parts of the region have made the going tough.
The AU’s leadership in coordinating the member states response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been laudable. The African continent was amongst the last regions to be hit by the COVID pandemic. Several countries experienced multiple waves of the pandemic. One of the main concerns was the slow roll out of the vaccines. Here, the Africa Centre for Disease Control (Africa CDC), the AU vaccine acquisition task team and the AU’s vaccine delivery task team have been commended for their work. 2
Significant progress has been made with peaceful electoral transitions in the African region. According to the Economist since 2015 there have been 32 peaceful change of governments in Africa.3 In 2019, Lazarus Chakawersa, won the re run of the Presidential elections defeating Petr Mutharika, the former president. Another example is the peaceful transfer of power in Zambia. Former President Edgar Lungu conceded defeat in 2021 general elections to the opposition leader Hakami Hichelema. Similarly recent political transitions in countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Gambia signal hope for democracy in the continent.
Unfortunately the recent years have also seen a rise in unconstitutional changes of government in Africa. Most notable were those in West Africa. Between 2021 and 2022 there were four coups in West African countries (Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea and Mali). The other country that went through an undemocratic political transition is Sudan. Most of the countries that have succumbed to military coups in Africa face challenges such as governance deficiencies, corruption within political elites, rising insecurity, particularly failure to contain terrorism and frustration of youth with slow pace of economic reforms. Increasing rivalry between external powers, and their efforts to increase their influence particularly Russia may also be a factor in the recent coup in Mali. 4 The AU’s Political Affairs, Peace and Security department has a tough task ahead to deal with this challenging issue. It seems African countries are still not united to speak in one voice on tackling with this menace.
Rising insecurity – multiple conflicts and terrorist activities is another concern in Africa. According to Stockholm Institute for Peace Research (SIPRI) 18 out of 49 states in Sub- Sharan Africa faced conflict in 2021. 5 They include Burkina Faso, Central African Republic (CAR), Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Ethiopia. The continuing conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia has plunged the host of the AU into crisis. Mediation by AU envoy, former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, is a crucial test for the AU. The African Union initiative of ‘silencing the guns’ is an important step to deal with the continent’s continuing conflicts. It includes the AU Roadmap on Practical Measures to Silence the Guns in Africa by 2030. This initiative is part of the AU’s Agenda 2063 that seeks to free Africa from all conflicts and war. However the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed down the momentum of the silencing the guns initiative.
The terror groups also continue to thrive. Despite AU’s efforts, violent terror groups are active in Somalia in the Horn of Africa and have created instability in bordering regions of Kenya, Sahel region of West Africa, particularly in Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, northern Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Mozambique. According to the African Centre for the Study and Research on Terrorism (ACSRT), between 2012 and 2020, terrorist attacks on the continent have multiplied. While there were 508 terrorist attacks across the continent in 2012 they increased to 2,034 in 2020.6 Terror activity has come down in Mozambique but not come to an end. Over the years, African Union and its predecessor Organisation of African Unity (OAU) have adopted several legal instruments to combat terrorism, such as the OAU Convention on Combating Terrorism (1999) and its Protocol (2004), Plan of Action on the Prevention and Combating of Terrorism (2002). Despite these initiatives the terrorists continue to flourish on the continent. This underscores the urgent need for African Union to focus on concerted and coordinated efforts to address the fundamental root causes of terrorism and violent extremism.
Food insecurity is another major concern in Africa. Across the continent, the COVID-19 pandemic and Ukraine conflict has aggravated food insecurity. According to recent reports by Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)around 346 million people in Africa are suffering from a food crisis.7 Malnutrition adds to the misery of the people in the region. More than one third of the world’s undernourished people are located in Africa.8 The United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) two calls for ending hunger by 2020. However in Africa, the progress in achieving this goal is very slow.
Within Africa, Horn of Africa region is the most affected by the food crisis, followed by countries in Sahel and Central African region. Off late, the Horn of Africa has been affected by a persistent drought. The Ukraine conflict has added to the problem. Quite a few African countries are dependent on Russia and Ukraine for food grains, for example – Somalia, Nigeria, Sudan and South Sudan. It is ironical that this food crisis is unfolding in the year when the AU theme of the year is ‘Building resilience in nutrition on the African continent: Accelerate the human capital, social and economic development’. It is clear that a lot more needs to be done by the continental body in resolving this issue.
Africa, a continent of over a billion people with growing political and economic power has a long and historical connect with India and in recent years the partnership has augmented. India’s Africa engagement is demand based and is guided by African priorities. India has welcomed the African Union’s initiatives towards enhancing peace and security architecture with the aim of finding African solutions for African problems.
In conclusion, it is clear that as the African Union prepares to celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2022, it should redouble efforts to address the peace and security challenges on the continent.
*Ms. Ruchita Beri is Senior Research Associate & Centre Coordinator, Africa, LAC, UN Centre at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA), New Delhi.
- 1. The African Union superseded the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).
- 2. Oheneba Boateng and Lynda Iroulo, “Africa and COVID-19: Where Do We Go from Here?”, Global Public Policy Institute, July 22, 2021, at https://gppi.net/2021/07/22/africa-and-covid-19 (Accessed May 25, 2022)
- 3. “Malawi’s re-run election is a victory for democracy”, Economist, July 2, 2020, at
https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2020/07/02/malawis-re-r… (Accessed July 24, 2022)
- 4. Samuel Ramani, “Why Russia is the winner in the recent coup in Mali”, Foreign Policy Research Institute, September 16, 2020, at https://www.fpri.org/article/2020/09/why-russia-is-a-geopolitical-winner-in-malis-coup/ (Accessed July 2, 2022)
- 5. SIPRI Year Book 2022, “Armed conflict and peace processes in Sub Saharan Africa” at https://www.sipri.org/yearbook/2022/07 (Accessed July 28, 2022)
- 6. African Union, “African leaders to scale up efforts against unconstitutional changes of government; terrorism and foreign mercenaries”, May 28, 2022, at https://au.int/en/pressreleases/20220528/african-leaders-scale-efforts-against-unconstitutional-changes-terrorism (Accessed July 24, 2022)
- 7. International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), “Nothing to eat: food crisis is soaring across Africa” 22 May 2022 at https://www.icrc.org/en/document/food-crisis-soaring-across-africa ( Accessed July 22, 2022)
- 8. Haradhan Kumar Mohajan, “Food Insecurity and Malnutrition of Africa: A combined attempt can reduce them”, Journal of Economic Development, Environment and People, 11(1), 2022 at http://dx.doi.org/10.26458/jedep.v1i1.716 (Accessed July 17, 2022)
