Luanda, March 13, 2025 (Lusa) - The Chair of the African Union (AU) said on Thursday that the promoters of tensions and conflicts in Africa should be "discouraged, held accountable and penalised with heavy sanctions", considering that the continent needs a "solid peace architecture".
"The promoters of tensions and conflicts on our continent must be discouraged, held accountable and penalised with heavy sanctions from the organisation, which will have serious consequences on them, people and countries," said Angolan and AU President João Lourenço today in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
For the AU leader, the problem of conflicts in Africa and the accountability of their promoters should merit "more exhaustive reflection" by the AU commission, so that the Peace and Security Council is given a fundamental role in the action it should take to prevent and resolve conflicts that prevail on the continent.
"What is at stake is the need to create a solid architecture for peace and security in Africa, which is one of our continent's greatest concerns today," said João Lourenço, speaking at the ceremony where the new members of the AU commission exchanged portfolios.
"We should be ashamed that institutions outside Africa, such as the European Union or the United Nations Security Council, are sometimes more rigorous, demanding and forceful in their positions than we are in dealing with conflicts that are taking place on our continent," he said.
Lourenço, who has held the rotating presidency of the AU since February, reiterated his concern about terrorism and violent extremism, unconstitutional changes to democratically elected governments and the conflicts that prevail in Africa, especially in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRCongo) and Sudan.
"It is clear that (...) while there has been some encouraging progress in conflicts that seemed to have no end in sight, there are still some that are unfortunately evolving in a worrying and reprehensible negative direction, such as the ongoing conflict in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo," he said.
"We have decided not to fold our arms and to insist on finding peaceful solutions, not allowing the ongoing balkanisation plan to materialise, with the creation of a pariah state in the east of the DRCongo, or even the attempt to reverse the power established in Kinshasa by military means," he continued.
On Wednesday, the Angolan presidency announced that it would host "direct negotiations" between the authorities of neighbouring DRCongo and the M23 rebels, as part of Angola's mediation of the conflict.
As for Sudan, the AU leader promised to work "much more closely" with Ugandan President Yowei Musseveni, who has been doing "commendable work" to remove harmful external factors in the search for a constructive dialogue between the parties to the conflict to reach a ceasefire.
João Lourenço also expressed his conviction that African states must act to find African solutions to African problems and silence the guns, so that this issue does not continue to dominate the AU's "almost eternal" agendas and debates.
For peace and security in Africa, João Lourenço also said that it would be useful to hold a broad conference to analyse conflicts on the continent, "whose main focus should be on the question of peace, as an obligatory and undeniable good for all the peoples of our continent".
DAS/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
