African Union deplores the "limits" of UN peacekeeping operations in Africa

The Senegalese head of state and current president of the African Union (AU), Macky Sall, today warned of the limits of UN peace operations on the continent to confront jihadism.
 
"In the face of terrorism, traditional UN peace operations have shown their limits," Sall said during his opening speech at the eighth edition of the Dakar International Forum on Peace and Security in Africa, which runs until Tuesday.
 
"Blue helmets attacked even in their own bases, without any meaningful response capacity, certainly cannot protect populations threatened by terrorist groups," the president added, questioning whether these missions can maintain peace when peace "has not even been established".
 
Sall considered it "necessary to update the entire doctrine of peace operations to fully integrate the fight against terrorism, including in Africa", and recalled that this is not an "African issue" but a "global threat" and a primary responsibility of the UN Security Council.
 
The annual Dakar International Forum on Peace and Security in Africa brings together African heads of state and government, ministers, representatives of international organisations and experts. Under the theme "Africa in the face of exogenous shocks: challenges of stability and sovereignty", this edition is being held at the Abdou Diouf International Conference Centre (CICAD) in Diamdianio, a city under construction some 36 kilometres from Dakar.
 
The presidents of Angola, João Lourenço, and Cape Verde, José Maria Pereira Neves, were present today, the Portuguese-speaking African country being the guest of honour at the forum. During his speech at the opening of the event, Lourenço alluded to the recent coups d'état in West Africa, which should not be seen "as something normal", and to the conflict in northern Ethiopia, which deserves attention "until we achieve definitive peace".
 
He also pointed out the importance of food security and climate change, which have consequences for the economies, peace and security of countries, without forgetting that "poverty has worsened" and, therefore, "the probability of new factors of internal conflict has also increased". For his part, the President of Cape Verde proposed, in the face of these challenges, "doing our job" and, at the level of the continent, "reforming the AU, creating a true system of government".
 
The forum is also attended by more than fifteen ministers from various African countries, France, India, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey; representatives from Qatar, Kuwait, the Czech Republic and the European Union, as well as international organisations such as NATO and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The event aims to promote "pragmatic thinking" and "realistic solutions" to African security problems.
 
Among the issues to be addressed are the strategic orientations needed to promote the security autonomy of the AU and other regional organisations, with the aim of finding answers to the continent's crises. In the wake of international crises, new and more resilient models of African sovereignty to address stability challenges will also be discussed.
 
The forum comes at a time when African economies have not fully recovered from the covid-19 pandemic and are suffering from the effects of the war in Ukraine, with more than a third of African countries dependent on wheat from Russia and Ukraine. This is compounded by insecurity in several regions of the continent, mainly due to jihadist extremism, which has a strong impact on food security and development in these countries.