Publications /
Annual Report
Book / Report

Back
Download PDF
African Peace and Security Annual Conference (APSACO) - 8th edition: SUMMARY REPORT
Authors
Policy Center for the New South
September 30, 2024
Related topics: 
Security & Defense
Conflict resolution
Africa

The African Peace and Security Annual Conference (APSACO) just concluded its 8th edition, serving as a crucial platform for discussing conflict prevention and management in Africa. APSACO has fostered a vibrant community that facilitates dialogue on Africa’s unique challenges and allows for the exchange of innovative ideas on conflict resolution. The Policy Center for the New South (PCNS) is proud to be an active participant in this ecosystem, contributing to key initiatives such as the African Union (AU) Policy Framework on Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Development (PCRD), adopted by the AU Assembly of Heads of State in February 2024.

APSACO is distinctive in its ability to analyze African issues from the continent’s perspective while recognizing the interdependence between Africa and the global context. In conflict resolution, there is no universal model, and peace must be nurtured through local and regional solutions in addition to multilateral approaches promoted by the United Nations.

This year’s theme, "Mediation in Internal African Conflicts," highlights the growing importance of mediation within Africa, particularly in the context of African Union initiatives. African mediation processes integrate unique African norms, such as the principle of subsidiarity championed by Regional Economic Communities (RECs), while facing obstacles like institutional fragmentation, conflicting national interests, and the challenge of fostering innovative engagement between the AU and RECs, as well as the partnership between the UN and AU.

APSACO provides a critical forum for addressing these challenges through dialogue on key areas such as African mediation mechanisms, the coordination of local, regional, and continental efforts, strategies for fostering synergies between the AU and civil society, the complexities of the Sahelian crisis, and the vital role of civil society in peace processes. With evolving security dynamics across the continent, APSACO underscores the growing need for African mediation expertise and offers recommendations such as creating a mediation training panel to further develop these essential skills.

RELATED CONTENT

  • Libya and France: A Revival of ‘Napoleonism’?
    Authors
    Youssef Tobi
    May 3, 2019
    France appears to be relying on force to patch up problems in Africa, and particularly in Libya. None of this is compatible with President Macron’s lofty foreign policy declarations. French President Emmanuel Macron has classified colonisation as a crime against humanity. He is also keen to redefine the relationship with former French colonies. But in practice, there has never been a more ‘let’s go to war’ or ‘va t-en guerre’ attitude, in terms of its hopes for involvement in inter ...
  • Download PDF
    The Niger-Libya Border: Securing It without Stabilising It?
    Authors
    Mathieu Pellerin
    December 21, 2018
    Often described as an “ungoverned area”, the Niger-Libya border is nevertheless at the centre of major economic, political and security challenges. Both the Libyan authorities and the Nigerien state are struggling to establish tight control over this, particularly isolated area. However, local actors who live there are making their own modes of governance, based on individual and so far, barely institutionalised relationships. These local forms of regulation provide states in the su ...
  • Gulf Actors and the Role of Peace in the Horn of Africa
    Authors
    Rida Lyammouri
    October 31, 2018
    There has been a flurry of activity in the Horn of Africa recently, where decades-old political disputes have suddenly been put to rest. The resulting changes have shattered the status quo in the region, putting the Horn on a new path where state-to-state relations are no longer marked by regional competition and frozen borders. While this has undoubtedly been a positive development for the region, one big piece of the puzzle has been the role of external actors in the process, and ...
  • “L’Etat c’est moi”
    Authors
    Helmut Sorge
    September 14, 2018
    A VACUUM ON THE SHORES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA “L’Etat c’est moi, ” proclaimed Louis XIV on April 13, 1655. He was the state for 72 years and 110 days, the absolute monarch of France, who was "l’état lui meme" since he was four years old when his reign began. Louis made his nation the leading power in Europe, defining its foreign policy mainly through warfare. The monarch turned into a myth, surrounded by extravagance and luxurious exaggerations, the roi soleil dominating forever ...
  • Libye : les raisons pour lesquelles les élections n’auront pas lieu
    Authors
    Youssef Tobi
    September 14, 2018
    Après dix-huit mois d’observation, les milices armées de Tripoli ont repris leurs luttes de pouvoir faisant, une quarantaine de morts, selon un bilan datant du 3 septembre 2018, et provoquant l’évasion de quelque quatre cent détenus de la prison d’Ain Zara. Après la rencontre de Paris, et la conquête du croissant pétrolifère libyen par le Maréchal Haftar, les milices armées semblent dos au mur se résolvant dans un ultime effort à faire partie, tambour battant, de la nouvelle phase d ...
  • Ethiopie-Erythrée : La hache de guerre serait-elle enfin enterrée entre les frères ennemis ?
    Authors
    Sara Hasnaa Mokaddem
    September 7, 2018
    Alors que le dialogue était totalement rompu entre l’Ethiopie et l’Erythrée, le nouveau premier ministre Ethiopien a pris le pays et la région complètement au dépourvu en annonçant, dès sa prise de fonction en avril 2018, son intention de tourner la page aux « années d'incompréhension » et de renouer le dialogue en mettant en œuvre les termes de l’Accord d’Alger signé en 2000, suite à une guerre fratricide (1998-2000) qui avait fait plus de 80000 morts.  Le réchauffement entre les ...
  • Le partenariat Europe-Afrique-Méditerranée
    Authors
    Sabine Cessou
    September 6, 2018
    Le partenariat Europe-Afrique-Méditerrannée Comment renforcer la relation historique entre l’Europe et l’Afrique, et faire en sorte que le développement des deux continents se fasse en osmose ? C’est la question qu’a posée Gilles Pargneaux, euro-député français issu du mouvement « En marche », dans sa présentation d’une conférence organisée en partenariat avec OCP Policy Center, au Parlement européen, à Bruxelles, le 4 septembre 2018.  Président-fondateur de la Fondation EuroMedA ...
  • Russia in Africa
    Authors
    Helmut Sorge
    August 28, 2018
    A NATION CRAVING TO RETURN TO GREATNESS It was yet another turbulent episode reflecting the dark sides of politics and secret service conspiracies. Murder is the message. “Do not mess with us.” The killers wore turbans and spoke Arabic. What else is new? It was dark, not a good time to drive on a hellhole of a road in the Central African Republic, one of the poorest nations of the world. So poor that death has no price. Not many streets are paved and streetlights are as frequent as ...
  • The Little Summit that Could : Looking back on the 31st African Union Summit in Nouakchott
    Authors
    Malik Abaddi
    August 8, 2018
    The African Union goes to Mauritania Under the theme “Winning the Fight Against Corruption”, the 31st Summit of the African Union was held in early July in the desert capital Nouakchott. In a bitter prelude in late June, the AU’s commitment to this central theme was dealt a blow with the sudden – and public – resignation of Ghana’s Daniel Batidam from the AU Advisory Board on Corruption. Off to a rocky start, the summit had an even rougher road ahead of it.  A month before the lau ...
  • Les quatre premiers mois d'Abiy Ahmed Ali : bilan intérieur et extérieur
    Authors
    Tristan Coloma
    Benjamin Augé
    July 27, 2018
    Arrivé au pouvoir le 2 avril 2018, le premier ministre Ethiopien Abiy Ahmed Ali, issu de la majorité oromo, a été imposé à une minorité tigréenne ayant cadenassé les postes à la tête de l'Etat, depuis la domination politique de la coalition de l'Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) en 1991. Chef de l'Oromia Urban Development and Housing Bureau en charge des programmes de construction dans sa région, ainsi que vice-président de cette région peuplée de plus de 30 ...