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The African Union celebrated its 20th anniversary this month at a gathering in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, where the heads of most of the 55 member states patted themselves on the back for the organization’s “achievements.”
The AU was formed in 2002 to replace the Organisation of African Unity, a body that had abysmally failed to uphold its founding principles and meet its objectives, notably the promotion of democracy, peace and security on the continent.
In fairness, the AU got off on the right note. Unlike its predecessor, it did not hesitate to send in forcesassembled from its member states’ militaries to resolve civil wars and other conflicts. Its first notable intervention was in 2004, when AU troops went into Sudan to stop the genocide in Darfur — perhaps the first time in Africa’s modern history that a regional force had stopped a civil war. It followed up with another mission to end jihadist violence in Somalia. Its robust policy against coups also meant that, after a long time, Africa was almost entirely free of any transfer of power through force.
Thus, in its early years, the AU did manage to bring a semblance of peace and calm to the continent, which allowed leaders to focus on other challenges, notably economic development, health and climate change. One of the AU’s most notable achievements was the African Continental Free Trade Area, which came into effect in 2021 and envisages the formation of the world’s largest free trade area, encompassing 1.2 billion people in 55 countries. It was inspired by the EU model, and African leaders rightly hope that allowing free movement of goods, services and people across national borders will ramp up their economic growth and collective might.
The African Union and the African Continental Free Trade Area could help African countries by bargaining with the developed world and speaking with once voice at international meetings, notably on climate change.
Ranvir S. Nayar
True integration along EU lines has begun to make so much more sense for Africa in the post-pandemic word, as many of its countries were among the worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, in areas from the economy to health, malnutrition and poverty. On top of that, Africa has been facing some of the worst effects of climate change, even though almost all African nations are low down on the global list of per capita carbon emitters. Some of the worst consequences are severe droughts from the Sahel to the southern tip of the continent, Cape Town in South Africa. Over 100 million Africans already face a severe food crisis, and this number will only rise.
The African Union and the African Continental Free Trade Area could help African countries by bargaining with the developed world and speaking with once voice at international meetings, notably on climate change. To do so, the AU itself must ensure that it stays on the path set out by its founders, but over the past few years it has been floundering. There has been a spate of coups, especially in western Africa, and conflicts are raging again in many African countries — most notably Ethiopia, whose capital Addis Ababa hosts the AU headquarters.Despite the civil war in Tigray and the use of force by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the AU has maintained a deathly silence.
The AU has also singularly failed at promoting African unity, its prime goal. This was witnessed in the embarrassing incident in January 2020, when Kenya battled Djibouti for the non-permanent seat on the UNSecurity Council. Before, African nations unanimously backed an agreed candidate, but the AU failed to resolve the dispute between the two member states. It also failed to back one name for the position of directorgeneral of the World Trade Organization.
These incidents highlight the deep divisions in Africa, with competition between the Anglophone east and south and the Francophone west and center. Leaders need to be able to put their history behind them, especially as they had no role in shaping the colonial period.
Another challenge for the AU and Africa is the high level of debt. Over the past decade, many have been attracted by China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Beijing has supplied billions of dollars in infrastructure loans, some of which has turned out to be wasteful expense — notably new rail lines in several eastern and central African nations, which have been built but are far away from generating the revenues that would allow the governments to pay back the loans. Many African nations seem to be in the same boat as Sri Lanka, which built up a mountain of debt thanks to ambitious projects funded by China and has now defaulted on international debt.
Even before, almost no African nation was wealthy, and COVID-19 has ended all hopes that African leaders would be able to repay debts to Chinese and other international creditors. Instead of leaving individual members to renegotiate debt repayments, the AU ought to take the lead and perhaps carry out a continent-wide debt restructuring.
But that would require unity, peace and democracy all over the continent — founding goals of the AU that seem to be as distant now as they were in 2002.
• Ranvir S. Nayar is managing editor of Media India Group.