African leaders have committed themselves to ending armed conflict on the continent and promoting lasting peace and economic prosperity. This is in keeping with the African Union’s blueprint for the continent. Sadly, though, the leaders’ 2013 pledge to “silence the guns” by 2020 has failed.
According to a 2017 report by Rwandan president Paul Kagame, then chairman of the African Union (AU), the failure to end conflict shows that member states do not take the AU’s decisions seriously. This gives the continental body little credibility.
Very little has changed since Kagame’s report. The inadequate response to security crises continues. This is because most of the 55 member states lack the capacity to carry out its mandate. There is also a lack of political will to implement its peace and security programmes. The emphasis, instead, is on respecting the sovereignty of the nation states.