Africa needs conflict prevention as the continent faces unprecedented threats

This article is published in association with United Nations.

Conflicts in Africa cannot be solved through military solutions and peace and security on the continent “demands a proactive preventative” approach, according to the UN’s Special Representative to the African Union.

Parfait Onanga-Anyanga was speaking at a Security Council meeting focused on the key issues faced by Africa and cooperation between the UN and the African Union (AU) – a continental organisation comprising 55 African Member States.

He warned that “concerns remain in some parts of the continent about the number and complexity of conflicts.”

He said these conflicts were often worsened by “weak or ineffective State authority, violence extremism conducive to terrorist activities, the inequitable management of natural resources, organized crime, the impact of climate change, acute food insecurity and, in some cases, denial of fundamental human rights.”

Conflicts in the Horn of Africa, Sudan, South Sudan and the Great Lakes region – including the Democratic Republic of the Congo – have caused widespread displacement and multiple humanitarian emergencies.

UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Horn of Africa, briefs the Security Council meeting on maintenance of international peace and security.

“No military solution whatsoever can resolve underlying causes of the conflict in the DRC or elsewhere in Africa,” said Mr. Onanga-Anyanga. “I call upon this Council to continue to leverage its influence towards peaceful settlement of outstanding issues between the parties.”

The Special Representative highlighted two critical conflict-related issues to Council members: climate change as a conflict multiplier and the challenges faced by women and girls in battle-scarred regions, noting the consistent spillover effects of climate-induced insecurity across all these crises.

Unprecedented wave of threats

Speaking for the AU, Ambassador Mohamed Fathi Ahmed Edrees told the Council that

“Africa is facing an unprecedented wave of threats to its security” adding that “solutions are needed to achieve greater stability.” 

The UN and the AU have long collaborated on issues affecting the continent and according to the UN’s Onanga-Anyanga “significant progress has been made, particularly in supporting recent free, fair, and credible elections across the continent—in Botswana, Ghana, Mauritius, and most recently Malawi, where a new president was inaugurated last week.”

Mr. Onanga-Anyanga said that fostering consensus was more important than ever.

“The strong and enduring partnership between the United Nations and the African Union, as well as with other regional organizations, constitutes the foundation of effective and networked multilateralism, essential to address today’s complex, evolving and interconnected threats to peace, security, development and human rights, particularly in Africa,” he said.

Responding to armed conflicts

In December 2023, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution to enhance cooperation between the UN and AU.

Addressing the Council, Martha Pobee, a UN Assistant Secretary-General with a brief focusing on Africa said that the resolution (2719) was conceived “as a means to address a longstanding gap in the African Union’s peace and security architecture to better to respond to armed conflicts on the African continent, with the support of the broader international community, and this Council in particular.”

Work is continuing on the operationalisation of the resolution across four key workstreams with some progress reported.

Joint planning modalities for AU-led peace support operations were approved in September, establishing a shared decision-making framework.

Mission support planning was also finalized to ensure coherent field operations.

Earlier in the year, the UN outlined financial rules for AU-led missions, now under legislative review.

Progress was also made on compliance and the protection of civilians including strengthening accountability mechanisms and developing gender-responsive policies.

The efforts “seek to ensure that our collaboration is grounded both in strategic vision and in operational practicality,” said Ms. Pobee.