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President of the AU, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa
- SA is organizing two African Union summits: on silencing weapons, as well as on free trade on the continent.
- The AU member states will extend their deadline for peace on the continent from the end of this year until 2030.
- Civil society actors say they should be consulted before summits on this issue.
African Union (AU) member states appear poised to extend their year-end deadline for peace on the continent by another decade, when leaders meet via Zoom this weekend for two consecutive organized summits. by the President of the AU, President Cyril Ramaphosa.
They are also expected to ask the AU Peace and Security Council to name and shame those who pose a threat to security on the continent.
The extraordinary summit on “silencing the weapons” will be held on Sunday and is expected to adopt a Johannesburg Declaration to “reaffirm its commitment to contribute to an Africa free of conflict and war,” Ramaphosa’s office said in a statement.
The previous summit on Saturday laid the legal foundation for the launch of the African Continental Free Trade Zone on New Year’s Day. The summits were originally planned for the end of May and were supposed to mark one of the highlights of Ramaphosa’s one-year term as AU president, but had to be postponed due to the Covid-19 shutdowns at the time.
Rachel Morake, director of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco), told an Institute for Security Studies (ISS) webinar on Thursday that the UA had recognized that its goal of silencing weapons could not be realized by the end of this year. .
She said:
Some of the practical steps that were supposed to take place during the course of 2020 have already been inhibited by the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic. The AU has resolved to extend the goal of silencing weapons until 2030.
The continental body will also take stock of how the process is going every two years, starting in 2021.
Foreign influences
Africa’s Amnesty Month in September, which provides a window for the collection and disposal of illegal weapons, will also be extended for another 10 years.
Morake said that cybercrime, organized crime, money laundering, illicit financial flows and human trafficking also affected the AU’s goals of achieving peace in Africa. Earlier this year, Ramaphosa announced that he would prioritize the conflicts in Libya and South Sudan while in command of the AU.
His term this year also coincided with South Africa’s second and final year on the United Nations Security Council. However, in addition to naming and shaming, the African Union lacks the power to sanction those who contribute to the conflict on the continent.
There is also concern within the AU about foreign influences on African peace and security affairs, including foreign military bases in various countries on the continent. The summit is expected to encourage member states to consult with their regional neighbors before agreeing to host such bases, to ensure that they serve the interests of the continent.
News24 has reliably learned that the summit is expected to consider ordering the AU Peace and Security Council to name and shame those states that deny a growing crisis within their borders, as well as foreign entities that interfere in the internal affairs of AU member states, or sponsoring illegal weapons and providing covert military support to armed groups on the continent.
Mozambique, for example, has refused to acknowledge that the conflict in its northern province of Cabo Delgado is a crisis, making it difficult for other countries to get involved to help.
However, the summit has already received criticism from academics and civil society actors who want to provide more input.
‘Negative peace, instead of positive peace’
Wafula Okumu of the Center for African Studies at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland told the ISS webinar that it was not entirely clear what the AU meant by “silencing the guns.” He also said that the organization’s peace and security agenda “is oriented towards achieving a negative peace, rather than a positive peace.”
He said that most AU member states did not fulfill their peace promises, while others maintained or increased high military and security spending. Okumo said there are 40 million firearms in the hands of civilians in Africa, half of those in Europe, although the latter was more peaceful.
Most of the weapons used in Africa come from outside the continent, with Russia (with 49%) being the largest supplier.
Okumu said that South Africa was the main arms manufacturer and exporter in Africa, but that 26 countries had a “thriving production of homemade weapons, mainly used in robberies, violence by pastoralists, violence and conflict between communities, political banditry and other activities criminal “. .
Doris Mpoumou from Save the Children International said civil society should have had the opportunity to participate in a pre-Sunday summit to give their input. He said that access to information was also a problem.
“There are many obstacles and obstacles to accessing information to collaborate with the UA. Because we know what is happening in the communities, we can actually provide information that we get from the communities to decision makers,” he said.
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