Continent Faces New Threats – Lessons From North Africa and Cote d’Ivoire Crises

Louise Mushikiwabo

2 May 2011

Nairobi — After the crises in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, and the post-electoral violence in Cote d’Ivoire, and having observed recent uprisings in Burkina Faso, only an open and frank discussion on the matter will lead the Peace and Security Council, and indeed all AU member states, to find preventive measures to address potential threats to Africa’s peace and security.

This is what took place at a special meeting of the African Peace and Security Council of the African Union in Addis Ababa on April 2.

There is no doubt that the new threats to peace and security on the continent are real. The experience from North Africa tells us that Africa faces a serious threat of becoming a conflict-prone continent again.

This presents a danger to the hard-earned peace and the path of sustainable economic prosperity that have characterised the continent in the recent past.

If the continent’s leadership does not go beyond communiqués and unimplemented resolutions, roll up its sleeves and face these issues, social unrest has the potential to spill over to other countries and undermine the wellbeing of citizens.

Two elements have been specifically highlighted as being the root causes of the uprisings in North Africa, namely poverty and poor governance.

On the economic front, it is obvious that poverty is and will remain a root cause of conflicts in Africa. It is therefore imperative to fast track economic development.

According to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, if sub-Saharan African countries are to perform better and generate enough wealth to satisfy their people’s needs, there is an urgent need to revisit the economic models that we have adopted, that are not always relevant to Africa’s development.

Citing comparative studies of Africa’s development patterns and that of a number of Asian countries, it is his view that: “The neo-liberal development paradigm cannot bring about economic transformation or sustained and accelerated growth.”

He adds that the primary objective of a developmental state should be to bring about a radical transformation of the political economy of a country.

By so doing, value creation through producing globally competitive products and services would become the only path to wealth accumulation.

This view was shared by the United Nations Under-Secretary General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, Abdoulie Janneh, who called upon African leaders to make economic transformation a top priority for wealth creation and poverty alleviation.

The solution to these crises cannot, however, be reached by the creation of wealth alone. The countries affected by the recent revolts in North Africa and the Middle East are relatively wealthy. Governance issues are then the second aspect of the solution.

According to Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank, “Growth that is not inclusive, that leaves some behind, as we can see from North Africa, is neither economically, nor politically sustainable and will only lead to frustrations and social explosion.”

Dr Kaberuka prescribed a possible cure: “The first responsibility of any developmental state is to attempt to meet those aspirations, and you can see they have a lot to do with economic welfare and economic opportunities — but they go beyond bread and butter issues.”

To govern for all and not for some, to be more inclusive and reach out to the young and the poor — these are the key messages learned from uprisings in North Africa that the President of the African Development Bank presented to the conference in Addis Ababa.

Jean Ping, chairperson of the AU Commission, gave a similar message: “African countries need to expand the provision of social services like access to education and health, generate meaningful employment as well as ensure food security so as to ensure sustainable development.”

Nevertheless, let us ask ourselves if these objective factors respond adequately to the recent crisis in Cote d’Ivoire, or to the deplorable situation we witnessed a few years ago in Kenya. Post-election violence is not really new to Africa, but the case of Cote d’Ivoire has brought that phenomenon to an unprecedented level.

This has raised fundamental questions about democracy, and what it means to the people.If the French democratic system is different from the British one, why should Africa adopt democratic systems similar to those two? Do these systems necessarily respond to the equity, justice and inclusivity needed by the people of Africa?

Let me recall the rich exchanges we’ve had during the last summit on African values. Should an African state experience genocide like in Rwanda or civil unrest like in Kenya for it to realise the importance of inclusive governance?

Global governance was the last aspect introduced for discussions, specifically the perception by different actors, the media in particular, that Africa, especially the African Union, has been absent or irrelevant in the management of the crisis in Libya. We also know that the African Union’s Peace and Security Council put in place a High Level Ad Hoc Committee on Libya composed of five heads of state, and that a roadmap to bringing peace to Libya has been decided upon.

While African Union Commission chairman Jean Ping has been interacting with other stakeholders, such as the EU, the US, Nato and the UN, to find a lasting solution to the Libyan crisis, more needs to be done.

For instance, what special consultative mechanisms are in place and can be used in times of crisis that would allow different AU organs to interact with heads of state?

Everyone agreed that Africa should not condone a head of state who holds his own people in contempt. And that it should never tolerate a head of state who intentionally takes the lives of his own people.Despite all this, why has the African Union not responded in a timely fashion and taken a leadership role to put in place practical steps to stop this?

Finally, why has the African Union, in such grave situations, not called for an extraordinary urgent conference of heads of state and government for prompt deliberations and actions?

This is the question I put to the meeting. It is, after all, our collective duty as the leadership of this continent to take timely and collective actions.

Louise Mushikiwabo is Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Co-operation. Rwanda was the chair of the AU’s Peace and Security Council for April.

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