POLITICS: Cleaning Up Africa's Image

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Analysis by Moyiga Nduru

JOHANNESBURG, Jul 5 2004 (IPS) - Conflict resolution and poverty reduction will dominate the annual summit of the African Union (AU), to be held in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, this week from Jul. 6 to 8.

According to certain analysts, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, his Nigerian counterpart – Olusegun Obasanjo – and Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal are spearheading the drive to clean up Africa’s image. The continent has long been perceived as one plagued by wars, disease and corruption.

“There seems to be a new group of African leaders who want to make the African Union credible,” Grant Masterson of the Johannesburg-based Electoral Institute of Southern Africa told IPS on Monday, Jul. 5. “This group is led by President Mbeki and others like Obasanjo of Nigeria.”

Last month the AU passed its Peace and Security Council protocol, which creates a body to address wars on the continent.

The AU heads of state and government summit will this week receive recommendations from the council on developments in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, and conflicts in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Cote d’Ivoire, according to a statement from Mbeki’s office on Jul. 5.

“These countries have serious issues that need to be addressed,” Masterson said.

In addition, a resolution concerning an African Standby Force will be tabled at the meeting.

The AU’s 15-member Peace and Security Council says the proposed 15,000-strong peacekeeping force will be deployed to prevent wars, disarm and demobilise fighters, ensure that cease-fires are honored, distribute relief aid and perform other peace-building functions in Africa’s hot spots.

AU members have set 2010 as the date for creating the force, which will initially comprise troops from South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Egypt.

Unfortunately, the establishment of this force will come too late to prevent the humanitarian catastrophe that has unfolded in Darfur.

At present, the AU has only 23 observers on the ground and another 60 on the way to the troubled region, according to Alpha Konare, Chairman of the AU Commission. Konare traveled to Darfur on Jul. 3 to try to negotiate peace between rebels and pro-government Arab militias known as the Janjaweed.

More than 10,000 people have been killed and one million displaced in Darfur since rebels launched a bush war against the Arab-dominated Islamic regime in Khartoum two years ago.

The Janjaweed are accused of carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against three black African tribes from which the two rebel movements allegedly draw their support. The militias are also said to have the backing of Sudanese officials.

In his report, Konare said the observers would need a budget of 26 million dollars to operate in Darfur. But even with adequate financing it remains unclear whether this relatively small team of observers could effectively monitor events in the region, which is about the size of France.

Konare’s trip to Sudan followed that of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and American Secretary of State Colin Powell, last week. Both Annan and Powell urged the Sudanese government to disarm the Janjaweed or face sanctions.

The other challenge facing the AU is poverty. More than 350 million people, or half of Africa’s population, live below the poverty line of a dollar a day, according to the World Bank.

During the UN’s millennium summit, held in Sep. 2000, global leaders set eight millennium development goals in a bid to reduce poverty, maternal mortality, environmental degradation and other ills by 2015.

But, analysts doubt whether Africa will meet the target of halving poverty by 2015.

“Over the past 25 years, our continent has grown poorer – not richer – and only four countries are on track to meet the Millennium Development Goals in 2015. On present trends, Africa as a whole will only achieve the universal education targets in 2029, halving poverty will require another 100 years, and meeting the child mortality rates will only happen in 2169,” Trevor Manuel, South Africa’s Minister of Finance, told a seminar in the capital, Pretoria, last week.

In 2002, the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations, which groups some of the world’s most powerful economies, committed itself to increasing development aid by 12 billion dollars a month – half of which would be allocated to Africa.

Even as the AU struggles to revitalize Africa, however, some of its member states appear less then supportive of its efforts.

Libya’s Muammar Ghadaffi, for example, has been critical of AU demands for multi-party democracy in member states, and for administrations to have their standards of governance reviewed by a group of leading Africans. (This “peer review mechanism” was first envisaged under the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, NEPAD, which seeks to attract more investment to Africa through improving governance on the continent.)

“Ghadaffi is undermining the credibility of the African Union,” Masterson says.

Pretoria will also be bidding this week for the newly-created Pan-African Parliament to have its seat in South Africa. So far, Egypt is South Africa’s strongest rival in this regard.