<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The PSC Report believes the project \u2018was ambitious from the outset\u2019 and that the roadmap was bound to struggle given its tight deadline. It does conjecture though, that adopting \u2018silencing the guns\u2019 as a theme will \u2018galvanise stakeholders to take stock of achievements and challenges in implementing the roadmap.\u2019 Also that the AU Peace and Security Council will consider these lessons when developing a more robust action plan for achieving peace \u2013 but only beyond 2020.<\/p>\n
The report says the roadmap faced operational and institutional obstacles, mainly stemming from its assumption that conditions for silencing the guns now existed in Africa.<\/p>\n
Instead, it says, \u2018The activities of violent extremists and other insurgent groups in the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin, violence related to political transitions and the unprecedented level of climate change and natural disaster-induced displacement all pose a threat to states\u2019 ability to keep their citizens safe.\u2019 Indeed the Uppsala data shows the Nigeria-Sahel axis has the highest death rates.<\/p>\n
Like Assogbavi, the PSC Report notes member states\u2019 lack of political will to implement AU decisions as a major source of conflict. It also finds the roadmap to be unrealistic in its expectations of AU institutions that aren\u2019t yet fully functional. Equally unrealistic is its proposal that member states and regional economic communities as well as the AU and its organs themselves fund all the ambitious recommendations.<\/p>\n
But the report also notes that the AU Peace Fund has secured more funding from member states than ever before. This raises hopes that it can finance the implementation of more peace and security activities. Appointing former AU peace and security commissioner and former Algerian foreign minister Ramtane Lamamra as AU High Representative for Silencing the Guns in Africa has also raised hopes.<\/p>\n
In the above-mentioned February UN Security Council debate, African contributors tended to emphasise what outsiders could and should do to help silence the guns. For example, the need for more Security Council support for AU peacekeeping, and noting that the small arms flooding the continent were almost all manufactured abroad.<\/p>\n
True enough. But the one thing the AU and its member states have in both their power and their budgets to do, is to enforce the AU\u2019s own stated values of democracy, human rights, respect for the rule of law and good governance. That would be a good place to start in order at least to nip future conflicts in the bud.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
source:ISS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Both the value and the flaw of the African Union\u2019s (AU) Master Roadmap\u00a0of Practical Steps to\u00a0Silence the Guns\u00a0in Africa by the Year\u00a02020 is the breadth of its vision. In offering practical steps for realising the AU\u2019s ambitious plan to end conflict \u2013 adopted in 2013 as a flagship project\u00a0of its wider developmental blueprint Agenda 2063 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":8579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[1648,4899,12487,5522,11788,2701,1065,8289,11555,3862,10767,1384,7396,7234,10418,11399,11606,913,9478,1572,9127,12354,5787,5345,9643,3577,2264,5318,1647,3722,10840,10321,5910,10342,10256,12085,434,11973,6527,5396,5466,9431,1646,10214,1649,9265,5713,5655,5752,6327,8840,6730,5465,5689,7231,7999,11622,3954],"class_list":["post-8578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-africa","tag-african","tag-agenda","tag-arms","tag-au","tag-behaviour","tag-central-african-republic","tag-chad","tag-citizens","tag-climate-change","tag-conflict","tag-corruption","tag-data","tag-death","tag-death-toll","tag-debate","tag-democracy","tag-democratic","tag-dropped","tag-ethiopia","tag-february","tag-finance","tag-flood","tag-foreign-minister","tag-fund","tag-future","tag-government","tag-guinea","tag-gun-control","tag-guns","tag-human-rights","tag-illegal","tag-initiative","tag-law","tag-madagascar","tag-nations","tag-nigeria","tag-one","tag-organs","tag-peace","tag-peacekeeping","tag-poverty","tag-ramtane-lamamra-as-au-high-representative-for-silencing-the-guns-in-africa","tag-rates","tag-sahel","tag-sanction","tag-sanctions","tag-security","tag-security-council","tag-stock","tag-strong","tag-sudan","tag-un","tag-un-security-council","tag-union","tag-united-nations","tag-vision","tag-will"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8578"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50980,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8578\/revisions\/50980"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}