Stop the African implosion

From the northern to the southern part of the continent, a conflict-free Africa remains a dream.

According to Oslo-based conflict researcher and political risk consultant Julian Karssen, lack of political will and nonadherence by African Union (AU) member states to the Africa Agenda 2063 continues to become an impediment in achieving peace, security and sustainable development in Africa.

Silencing the Guns in Africa by the Year 2020 – a key pillar of the AU Africa agenda 2063 – is gathering dust. If the latest attacks in neighbouring Mozambique, where Islamic State-linked insurgents have brutally unleashed a reign of terror – beheading villagers in the Cabo Delgado province – is anything to go by, Africa is in trouble.

An IS-linked group of insurgents this week reportedly turned a Mozambican village football pitch into an “execution ground”, where they decapitated civilians. As if this kind of gruesome execution is something Mozambicans have to be accustomed to, failure to adequately respond sets a dangerous precedent.

Had this occurred on any other continent, it would surely have led to countries mobilising to stamp out the terror. Making matters worse, the Mozambican government, whose army is not adequately trained to quell the attacks, is seemingly failing to seriously engage the AU or the Southern African Development Community (SADC) for urgent military assistance.

Freeing the continent of wars, civil conflicts, humanitarian crises, human rights violations, gender-based violence and genocide within seven years was what African leaders committed to at the AU summit seven years ago. This was followed by the AU master plan road map on practical steps to be undertaken in addressing political, economic, social, environmental and legal factors, identified as contributing to conflict.

Despite all the noble undertakings, there were 21 active civil wars on the continent two years ago – the highest number recorded in Africa since 1946. Failure by AU member states to honour financial commitments in achieving success of the peace road map and in truly silencing the guns on the continent have been raised as challenges in realising the ambitious project.

This is despite the AU having introduced a new funding structure four years ago, to ensure that member states were to apply a compulsory 0.2% levy to all eligible goods imported from nonmembers, from which they would then pay their yearly assessed contributions.

“The proposal met stiff resistance from several African economies in the SADC over its potential impact on trade, leading the AU to reframe the levy as voluntary,” said Karssen.

“As such, by the end of 2018, 45% of the organisation’s member states were at various stages of implementing the levy. The challenge has been compounded by weak enforcement measures.”

Institute for Security Studies analyst Willem Els and counterterrorism expert Jasmine Opperman, an analyst at the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project, have warned of the insurgents’ likelihood of mounting more attacks in coming weeks in Mozambique.

Attacks in Mozambique or anywhere else in Africa by rogue forces, or rebels, is certainly a matter that continental organs like AU or SADC, should address without fail. Unless the AU is merely an old boys’ club to share tea and pleasantries, the screams of villagers in Cabo Delgado have gone in vain.

Brian Sokutu.

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