Tag: peace

How Relevant Is the International Criminal Court to the 21st Century Africa and Beyond?

How Relevant Is the International Criminal Court to the 21st Century Africa and Beyond?

Posted by | Jun 8, 2026 |

Although the International Criminal Court (ICC) was examining some non-African situations by 2013, most of the Court’s indictees happened to come from African conflict situations. As will be discussed later, this state of affairs was worsened by the arrest warrant on President Omar Al-Bashir while he was then a sitting president. This made the African Union (AU) feel unfairly targeted and, therefore, contemplate withdrawal from the ICC. Some African leaders have also maintained slanderous charges against the ICC describing it in uncharitable identities and questioning its modus operandi. However, given that the Court was established to dispense international justice for the commission of core crimes, the AU’s contemplation of withdrawal evokes some pertinent questions regarding the future of justice on the continent should the AU eventually withdraw from membership of the Court. How justifiable is the AU withdrawal contemplation? Is this the best of options? What are the possible alternatives for the AU? How does the AU contemplation of withdrawal represent a conflict of interest? In which ways could the Court be strengthened to dispense the international justice for which it was established? In the wake of the aforementioned questions, this paper seeks to address the issue of how relevant the ICC is to the 21st century Africa and beyond. Dwelling on critical discourse analysis as a methodology, the paper employs interdisciplinary perspectives featuring reflections on research in human rights, international law, political science and other relevant areas of interest and speaks to such probing concerns. This paper concludes that though the challenges the AU raises against the ICC are reasonably admissible, they are not compelling enough to justify an AU withdrawal since they are not of the magnitude that deprives the Court of its capacity to dispense justice. This means that the Court remains relevant to the 21st century Africa and beyond. The paper ends by proposing a framework within which the AU could contribute towards making the Court more functional.

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Questioning Separatism in a Context of Democratic Development: The Polisario and the Ambazonian Movement in the Face of Today’s New Geopolitical Challenges

Questioning Separatism in a Context of Democratic Development: The Polisario and the Ambazonian Movement in the Face of Today’s New Geopolitical Challenges

Posted by | Aug 22, 2024 |

Several African states are currently being rocked by separatist or autonomist movements seeking to create independent micro-states within recognised sovereign states. These include the Movement for self-determination of Kabylie (MAK) in Algeria, the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda in Angola, the Ogaden National Liberation Front or the Tigray Liberation Movement in Ethiopia, the National Liberation Movement of Azawad (NLMA) in Mali, the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance in Senegal and so on. While some of these movements date back to the post-independence era, others are more recent, albeit fuelled by distant causes. An example of this is Morocco, a North African country and a founding member of the Arab Maghreb Union, which faces separatism and regular harassment from Polisario, a movement that has been advocating the creation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic since 1976. A similar case study is English-speaking Cameroon, where various armed groups are calling for the creation of Ambazonia. While it is true that separatism is partly justified by the various frustrations of a population, it is also true that it represents a major risk to the stability of states. Given the current context and the issues at stake, it is almost impossible to give separatism any support. Repeated violations of human rights (rape, sexual abuse, looting, etc.), large-scale atrocities, massive destruction, violence, etc. are comparable to the methods of terrorists, and constitute a serious threat to sub-regional, regional and international peace and stability. This work is the result of the analysis of the archival, documentary and oral data collected and supplemented by neutral direct observation in the field. At the end of this reflection, four observations can be made about the Polisario and the independent movement of Ambazonia: The Polisario and the independent movement of Ambazonia have the same objective (independence); the same method of recruiting fighters (forced or voluntary recruitment among unemployed young people); the same modus operandi (use of violence), and the same approach (seeking external support to better influence geopolitical issues).

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Presidential Term Limits: A Threat to Peace and Security in Africa

Presidential Term Limits: A Threat to Peace and Security in Africa

Posted by | Apr 5, 2019 |

This article interrogates the recent trend whereby some African leaders resort to constitutional amendments to remove presidential term limits. It seeks to identify the factors that explain why this pattern is gaining ground in a growing number of countries, and analyzes its implications for peace and security in Africa. Attention is paid to two countries: Burundi and Burkina Faso which recently grappled with the issue of term limits with different outcomes. The article holds that the extension of presidential term limits threatens long-term peace and security in Africa. It argues that such political acts encourage unconstitutional changes of government, undermine human security, and weaken democratic institutions—all of which are critical to peace and security.

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L’engagement des états Africains en Matière de Sécurité en Afrique Centrale : Contraintes et enjeux de la coopération UA-CEEAC

L’engagement des états Africains en Matière de Sécurité en Afrique Centrale : Contraintes et enjeux de la coopération UA-CEEAC

Posted by | Apr 2, 2019 |

This article entitled “African states’ engagement in Security in Central Africa: challenges and prospects for cooperation between the AU and ECCAS“ analyses the perception and issues of peace and security dynamics in Central Africa. It also explores the coordination between the AU and ECCAS by questioning its operational efficiency vis-avis the local constraints and crucial challenges in the region. Assuming that States in Central Africa do not offer a shared /relevant vision on issues of peace and security, it is given that the lack of political will mitigates any opportunity of mutual cooperation where Africa can produce its own solutions for its peace and security challenges. Yet, while Eastern and Western African states are highly preoccupied to finding endogenous solutions to security challenges, the Central Africa Region lags behind in mobilizing around common challenges thus the wish for a harmonization/capacity building of already existing institutions. With regards to the knowledge and practice of AfSol, this chapter brings three major contributions that build upon existing achievements: (1) the inventory of endogenous solutions susceptible of capitalizing on the consolidation of peace in Central Africa; (2) incentives for decision makers in Central Africa for a more active engagement for peace and (3) the establishment of a platform of discussion between academic circles, pan-African structures of integration and political decision makers.

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