President John Dramani Mahama joined African heads of state in Luanda, Angola, on Sunday for an African Union (AU) summit on strengthening the continent’s conflict prevention and resolution mechanisms.
Opening the 21st Extraordinary Session of the AU Assembly, Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf called for urgent reform of the continent’s peace architecture, pointing to persistent crises from Sudan and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to Somalia, the Sahel, Libya, northern Mozambique and Madagascar. “Prevention must become our priority,” he told delegates, adding that the AU needed a stronger early-warning system and a fully operational Peace Fund.
Mahama and other leaders are expected to consider and adopt a Decision, Action Plan and Implementation Matrix on conflict prevention, the summit’s central item of business. The documents are meant to guide how the AU coordinates, funds and implements responses to conflict going forward, building on an assessment of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) and the African Governance Architecture (AGA).
The Assembly session followed a preparatory meeting of the AU’s Executive Council in Luanda on Saturday, where ministers reviewed draft versions of the same documents. Angolan President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço, who holds the AU’s peace and reconciliation portfolio, is chairing both sessions under the summit theme of strengthening continental mechanisms for conflict prevention and resolution.
The AU has scheduled a follow-up coordination meeting with regional blocs for October 4 in Egypt to track progress on any commitments made in Luanda.
