On the State of Peace and Security in Africa

Recent developments and security threats in Mali, Central African Republic and Nigeria are alarming. And we cannot forget South Sudan and the endless conflicts in Somalia and the Great Lakes. The African Union (AU), at its 50th Anniversary Solemn Declaration, pledged not to bequeath to future generations of Africans a legacy of wars and conflicts, by silencing the guns by 2020. But 2020 is around the corner. What is the way out of this situation? Background to Today's Security ConcernsThe African continent has no doubt witnessed many transformations in the last several decades, ranging from advances in the use of communication technology, to rapid economic growth triggered by an expanding market for Africa's commodities, and a burgeoning youth population able to innovate in this environment. At the same time, our potential to translate these transformations into stable peace and development for African people is hampered by the continuing threat of armed conflict, along with its transmutations. Armed conflicts have become a recurrent reality in Africa since independence.From 1960 until the present day, fifty percent of Africa's states have been ravaged by one form of conflict or another. The post-Cold War conflict resurgence is particularly disturbing. Peace and security scholars have attempted to classify armed conflicts on the continent into various categories - some of which understandably only feature in our discourses in a historical sense. Categorization at this point is necessary, if only as an indication of how far we have come as a continent. * Post-colonial conflicts arising from agitations for liberation from the control of colonial settlers in countries such as Zimbabwe (1980); Namibia (1990); and apartheid in South Africa (1994). * Boundary and territorial conflicts such as the Angolan Bush War in South Africa (1966-1989); the Algeria-Morocco conflict over the Atlas Mountain area (1963); the territorial tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea (1998-2000); the Kenya-Somali war (1963-67); the Somali-Ethiopian conflict (1964-78); the Egypt-Libya conflict (1977); and the Cameroon-Nigeria conflict over the disputed Bakassi Peninsula (1994) - the settlement of which I was part of. * Conflicts linked to secessionist ambitions such as the case of Sudan and South Sudan (1983-2011); the age-long Cassamance rebellion in Senegal; the Cabinda agitations in Angola; and the Biafra civil war in Nigeria (1967-70). * Resource-based conflicts such as the Sudan and South Sudan conflict over the Abyei region; the Congo-Brazzaville conflict (2007); the Senegal/Mauritania conflict (1989); and the conflict raging in eastern Congo over the last decade. * Identity-based conflicts such as inter-ethnic or inter-tribal conflicts. Examples of these are the 1994 Rwandan Genocide; the Burundi massacres; the Tuareg uprising in Mali; clan fighting in Somalia and Liberia; Algerian Berbers fighting against the ruling Arab class in Algeria; and the ongoing South Sudan conflict. * Annexationist conflicts such as the occupation of the Western Sahara by Morocco in 1975; and British Southern Cameroons in 1961. * Poverty, denial and perceived or real injustice induced conflicts like the militancy in the Niger Delta of Nigeria or the current Boko Haram insurgency.Even though a substantial decline in the occurrence of inter-state conflicts, including many of those mentioned above, was experienced in the 1990s, an alarming rise in the number of intra-state conflicts, and what some scholars refer to as "new wars" in their various forms and shades, is taking place. By nature, these conflicts tend to be more intense and intractable. They range from large-scale warfare to low intensity conflicts; and of late we have seen how public protests and people's movements can set off a chain of violent, even if transformative events. Over the past years, countries such as Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Ethiopia- Eritrea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda, Mali, Central African Republic, and Nigeria have witnessed one form of escalating conflict or another with their attendant consequences. …