confidentially speaking
The Africa Confidential Blog
Unanswered questions at the African Union
Blue Lines
It was 'noises off' that dominated the first summit of the African
Union under its new Commission Chairman, Moussa Faki Mahamat, on 3-4
July. As Chad's veteran
Foreign Minister, it was hoped that he would be
able to make progress on the continent's multiple conflicts, but sundry
external political and financial quarrels overshadowed initiatives in
the Sahel and the Horn of Africa. The looming crisis in AU operations
in Somalia next year, when
troops from Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda could
pull out and the European Union could end funding for the regional
peacekeeping operation, was barely discussed.
The real work on the Sahel conflict was done when the leaders of
Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso, Niger and Mauritania met in Bamako on 1-2
July and agreed to form a five-country force to fight terrorist groups
in the region. Although the United Nations and the EU are backing it,
the United States' refusal to
contribute prompted a new panic about
financing.
Conflicts such as the Kasai rebellion and the political deadlock
in Congo-Kinshasa did not make
the agenda. This was despite a strong
warning to the AU from Kofi Annan,
former UN Secretary General, and
nine African former Presidents, that Congo was in grave danger unless a
political agreement to hold elections this year was respected. Instead,
President Joseph Kabila got
the summit to back a resolution condemning 'outside interference' in
Congo-K's politics, presumably a reference to
European sanctions rather than African Presidents' warnings.
