Africa shows progress in tackling conflicts, UN Secretary-General reports

NEW YORK, 4 October -- Africa today is afflicted by fewer serious armed conflicts than it was just six years ago, says United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in an annual report issued today in New York.  When he issued his first major report on the causes of conflict in Africa in 1998, there were 14 countries in the midst of war and another 11 were suffering from severe political turbulence.  Today, Mr. Annan notes, just a half-dozen African countries are suffering from serious armed conflicts, among them Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Sudan, and very few other countries are facing deep political crises.

The United Nations and the rest of the international community have been “responding more readily” to armed conflicts in Africa, the Secretary-General notes.  But much credit for the improvement also rests with Africa.  The African Union, various subregional organizations and a number of governments have become more active in mobilizing military forces for peacekeeping missions or in defusing political crises before they escalate into large-scale violence, he reports.

Despite “steady” improvements in these areas, he adds, there have been only “modest and slow” advances in alleviating the underlying economic and political conditions that foster tension and strife.  Poverty reduction has been slow, in spite of efforts by African countries and their external partners to implement the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).  Concerns are rising about high levels of youth unemployment and heightened competition over scarce resources because of demographic pressures.  There also has been only limited progress in strengthening democracy, enhancing administrative capacity, ensuring independence of the judiciary and promoting transparency and accountability.

International and African Initiatives

Reflecting the international community’s greater readiness today to respond to conflicts in Africa -- after a series of peacekeeping setbacks in the 1990s -- Africa now receives the highest deployment of United Nations peacekeepers in the world, Mr. Annan reports.  (This totalled nearly 48,000 troops at the end of August 2004, according to the Department of Peacekeeping Operations.)

In recent years, the Security Council has approved new peacekeeping missions in Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Liberia.  The United Nations has also dispatched an advance team to southern Sudan, where a peace agreement has been signed, and the world body is collaborating closely with the African Union in efforts to facilitate a solution to the current crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region.  In the Sudan as in a number of other armed conflicts in Africa, such crises often have serious consequences for neighbouring countries, highlighting the importance of regional solutions.

The African Union’s establishment earlier this year of a Peace and Security Council has given a “major boost” to its own peace initiatives, Mr. Annan reports.  The Council has already taken up the political situations in a dozen African countries, and has decided to pay particular attention to several of those which have shown little sign of progress:  in Darfur, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo and between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

The Secretary-General commends the African Union for sending a peacekeeping mission to Burundi in 2002, which helped to stabilize the situation there (a United Nations peacekeeping mission has now taken over from the African Union force).  The African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority for Development, a subregional group in the Horn of Africa, have been working to help reconcile the various sides in Somalia.  In June 2004, the Economic Community of West African States authorized the creation of a standby peacekeeping unit of 6,500 trained and equipped soldiers, for rapid deployment to any country that may fall into crisis in West Africa.

The Group of Eight industrialized countries, notes the report, have agreed to provide financial support and training for the African Union’s plans to set up a similar standby force at the continental level.  The European Union has recently pledged €E250 million for the African Union’s peace fund.

While helping in such ways, Mr. Annan adds, the international community should, at the same time, be “sensitive and responsive” to the security concerns that Africa itself has identified.  Especially with a strengthened African Union now in place, external assistance should be provided in a way that respects African priorities, institutions and decisions.

For more information, contact:  Ernest Harsch, Africa Section, Department of Public Information, tel: (1-212) 963-4513, e-mail: harsch@un.org

The full report is available online: http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/sgreport/keyreps.htm

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