On the 37th AU summit: Problems in Africa are piling up

Africa’s conscience is in the right place on Gaza and many global issues. Solving urgent problems at home will strengthen our voices on those global challenges.  

This year’s African Union summit in Addis Ababa found itself vying for attention with the Munich Security Conference, where global leaders convened to tackle pressing security issues, with Gaza taking centre stage. Amidst this backdrop, the sight of Palestinian prime minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, seated alongside AU Commission Chair, Moussa Faki Mahamat, was quite the spectacle before Faki gave his verdict on the state of the continent. 

Faki gave Shtayyeh a solemn pledge of Africa’s “full solidarity” and the continent’s “unwavering commitment” to the full freedom for Palestinian people, including an independent and sovereign state. He also gave a nod to South Africa’s decision to haul Israel to the International Court of Justice for its genocidal war on Gaza wrapping up his address on Palestine with a poignant reminder from Nelson Mandela: “We know very well that our freedom is incomplete without that of Palestine.” 

It was a moment of beautiful solidarity and the room burst into applause several times as Faki outlined Africa’s strong moral stance on the issue. As Ebrahim Rasool, a former South African ambassador and anti-apartheid activist put it in an interview with Geeska, as “countries which had to fight colonisers ourselves it is important that we [Africans] stand up on issues like this to empower ourselves and re-shape the world.” But as Faki pivoted to issues closer to home, he began with a sombre observation: despite over half a century of independence, “our main challenges have not diminished in importance.” The picture he conceded was “bleak.”  

“Never since the creation of the AU has such a high number of unconstitutional transitions been reached in Africa,” he said. Faki was referring to the coups which overthrew Mohammed Bazoum last July in Niger and Ali Bongo a month later in Gabon, completing a belt of military regimes from Guinea along the Atlantic coast to Sudan on the Red Sea. Heads of state from several military regimes weren’t present due to suspension from the AU. Samira Sawlani, a columnist for The Continent has tauntingly dubbed the juntas Coup-Dashions. Not all the coups are equal and the prospect of a mini-lateral alliance between Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali – who have rejected French tutelage and exited Ecowas – has significant support; but as Kenyan pan-Africanist intellectual, PLO Lumumba recently put it on African Stream: “we must be vigilant to ensure that the transition to civilian government is not delayed unreasonably and that the coup leaders do not convert themselves into civilian leaders.”

In Egypt, the military has ignored Lumumba’s warning and has totally civilianised its regime as Abdel Fattah al-Sisi secured a third term with an astonishing 89.6% of the vote. Sisi would have you believe he’s the most popular leader in the world right now. Similarly in Comoros, Azali Assoumani, another former general was granted a fourth term in a disputed election that barely had a 16% turnout.  

Elsewhere in The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Sao Tome and Principe ambitious officers similarly sought unconstitutional attempts to oust their leaders but failed. But nowhere has the militarisation of African politics been deadlier than in Sudan which Faki described as “bruised, torn and deeply trampled by its elites.” The country now has the largest displaced population in the world with no prospect of peace or justice for civilians who have grown sick Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and even more so Hemedti.  

Where militaries haven’t played a direct role there are still instances of democratic setbacks. In early February a Tunisian court sentenced Rachid Ghannouchi to three years in prison where Kais Saied has embraced the racist great replacement theory and has effectively installed himself as a civilian dictator. “A poisonous atmosphere has descended on Tunisia,” writes Tunisian journalist and human rights activist Sihem Bensedrine. Senegal’s embattled president, Macky Sall, was suspected of a similar attempt to extend his mandate in a country which Faki hailed as a “model country in terms of democracy” on the podium at the AU. The move by Sall was shot down by the country’s constitutional court. Three people have died as the country has been gripped by weeks of protest. 

The escalating conflict between Mogadishu and Addis Ababa over a memorandum of understanding between Ethiopia and Somaliland has upended the region’s politics putting Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on a collision course with Abiy Ahmed. Many anticipated Mohamud’s decision to attend the summit would cause a stir but allegations that Ethiopian security forces intercepted Mohamud on his way to the AU headquarters reflect how bad bilateral ties between the neighbours have become. Mogadishu is now threatening war against a country which has spent much of the last decade defending it against al-Shabaab.  

Conflicts have mushroomed and metastasized elsewhere too. In Libya the prospect that the frozen conflict could thaw is very real, and even though Felix Tshisekedi met with Paul Kagame in a meeting brokered by Angola’s João Lourenço, the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels are now fighting near Sake, 20 kilometres from Goma, the capital of the North Kivu region. Like the Somali case a dispute even broke out at the AU headquarters between DRC officials and representatives from Rwanda. Cameroon too has seen a recent uptick in attacks in its English-speaking northern regions.  

Considering all this, US democrat senator John Fetterman recently asserted the racist view that Africans “should instead focus on spiralling humanitarian concerns” on their own continent, criticising South Africa for seeking justice and accountability for Palestine. That is a nonsense view. As the Houthi spokesperson put it in an interview with BBC Arabic: “So, Biden is Netanyahu's neighbour?” In fact, many leaders in Africa are incredibly well-placed with real experience of conflict resolution. Which country do you know which is better placed to end Israel’s apartheid?  

Faki however, was candid and was sounding the alarm. Whilst Africa’s conscience is in the right place on global issues, with Palestine being the standout example in stark contrast to the world’s leading superpower, the US, our leader’s failures to tackle issues closer to home weakens their ability to shape responses to global challenges beyond the continent – and Shtayyeh’s warm embrace of the AU’s stand demonstrates that our voices are needed now more than ever.  

Faki concluded his speech with reference to Julius Nyerere, a leading pan-African and Tanzania’s former president who now has a statue erected in front of the African Union’s headquarters. “African nationalism is meaningless, is dangerous, is anachronistic, if it is not at the same time pan-Africanist.” We better honour Nyerere’s legacy at home and globally if that pan-Africanist sentiment can bear greater fruit for its children, and Africa can become, as Yasser Arafat once put it, a “symbol of the future.”