WHERE ARE THE 52 AU MEMBER STATES IN TIMES OF ONES CONFLICT?? Is it just a mere assembly of Multi-coloured flags but one for himself and God for us all?? WHY IS AFRICAN UNION STILL FAILING ITS PEOPLE ON PEACE, SECURITY AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION ??– From a Pan-African View- By W.K.Atunga If one winds back the clock to 1986 one finds Yoweri Museveni – then a fighter, fresh from the bush – arriving to address an OAU summit. Museveni shocked Africa leaders to their faces that he believed they had betrayed his nation by looking the other way while some 750,000 Ugandans were killed by successive regimes. “Tyranny,” he said, “is colour-blind and is no less reprehensible when it is committed by one of our own.” Ugandans felt a sense of betrayal, Museveni said, that most of Africa had kept silent while tyrants killed them. Areas of Comflict: >The conflict in the Central African Republic has turned into a religeous war and has spiralled out of control. The killings are continuing daily, dividing the country along religious lines – nearly 1 million have been driven from their homes and half the population needs aid. MISCA is entirely under UN and was formed by UN. So where is AU?? >Boko Haram in Nigeria Keeps bombing and abducting innocent people on daily basis and have even renamed some cities with their own Islamic names..The QN is where is AU? >Southern Sudan War has left millions in refugee camps, famine has escalated, thousands have died ever since the conflict begun however the Peace deals are being stood in by IGAD...The QN is where is AU?? >Somalia is entirely run by United Nations security council and some few member states of AMSOM like Uganda,Kenya, Burundi and Ethiopia (Individual troop contributor ). However this hasnt stopped thousands of somalis death through ambush and bombings, Somalia now is the most famine and poverty stricken country in the entire Africa. The QN is where is the rest of AU Brigade member states? >Kenya is under a total threat from Alshabab group and majority Kenyans have fallen victims of their bombings. Kenyas public security is compromised, business has been disoriented at some point. And where is AU?? >Burkina Faso uprising left President of a member state in exile. The man who was once a president of AU could not be advised by the same organisation ever since revolts started in 2011. After the uprising AU has just shown up with Deadline for Military handover to a civilian transition government. The QN is how long will AU give support to Burkinabe and what type of support?? >Libya, Egypt, Tunisia current situations speak for themselves. In the absence of African Union, NATO had to Penetrate and run the destruction Campaign. Where was AU? and still where is AU in these States? This is exactly the kind of catastrophe that the African Union was designed to address. The organisation’s constitution was specifically written to allow it to step in where its widely discredited predecessor – the Organisation of African Unity – had failed to act. As its constitution puts it, the African Union can directly intervene in a member state in: “…grave circumstances, namely war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.” The African Standby Force was designed to provide the African Union with exactly the kind of military capability it needs to respond rapidly to critical situations of these kinds. The Standby Brigades would answer to the African Union’s Peace and Security Council, the continental equivalent of the UN Security Council. The aim was to produce a rapidly deployable force and that by 2012 two units, each 2,500 strong, would be operational within just 14 days. None of this would matter if the situation was not so grave, or if African Union peacekeepers were even now being airlifted to the rescue. But the African Standby Brigades, which have been more than a decade in preparation, are nowhere to be seen. For the case of Central African republic, Rather, it was French troops who were airlifted into Bangui. For Southern Sudan It was left to the United Nations to move peacekeepers from Darfur, Liberia, Ivory Coast, and even Haiti, and Ugandas Military to try staunch the bloodletting. Given the severity of the crisis in these Countries one might expect a clarion call for action from the head of the African Union Commission, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. Visiting the African Union’s own website there are no well-argued appeals for troops to be rushed to these states by the AU leadership. The United States lavished money on what was described as the “African Peace and Security Architecture,” providing US$ 500 million to train up to 50,000 African troops. British involvement was also substantial, with more than £110 million a year being invested via the African Conflict Prevention Pool for nearly a decade. Today the figure stands at £51.5 million.The Pool is a joint initiative, run by the Foreign Office, the Ministry of Defence and DFID. But the force, with its 5 regional Standby Brigades, has failed to materialise. The concept has been a signal failure. Differences between African states run far too deep for them to be used in the continent’s many crises. When Ivory Coast and Mali fell apart it was the old colonial power – France – that came to the rescue. So why the failure of AU in other African States with Conflict Zones ? Africa is capable of running military operations, given sufficient outside financial and logistical support. The Peace and Security Council currently boasts two “Field Missions”. One, in the Western Sahara, is so dormant it need not detain us. The other – in Somalia – is clearly active. The 25,000 strong African Union Mission to Somalia – AMISOM – has driven al-Shabaab, out of the capital, Mogadishu. AMISOM now holds substantial areas of Somalia, but it is, in reality, run by its troop contributors. So Uganda and Burundi call the shots in the capital, while Ethiopia runs its operations in the West and Kenya holds a strip of land in the far South. Although it nominally reports to the African Union, the organization has little control over what it can and cannot do. Much the same can be said for Africa’s regional peacekeeping forces – like the International Support Mission to the Central African Republic (MISCA). This was established under a UN Security Council Resolution on 5th December 2013. Troops from Gabon, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, and Cameroon made up the force. But within weeks the largest contingent – from Chad – had intervened on the side of the mainly Muslim Seleka fighters. They clashed with Christians, who make up the majority of the population. The Chadians became part of the problem rather than the solution and had to be withdrawn. The root of the problem lies with a failure of African leadership. When they held office Nigeria’s Olusegun Obasanjo and Thabo Mbeki of South Africa worked hand in glove on a range of issues. For a time it seemed that the concept of an ‘African Renaissance’ might become a reality. But the moment faded. Today both Nigeria and South Africa are ruled by weak presidents, obsessed with domestic problems and incapable of giving the continent a sense of direction.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 06:33:20 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015