INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT BY THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PEACE AND SECURITY COUNCIL OF THE AFRICAN UNION FOR THE MONTH OF JANUARY 2017, H.E. PRESIDENT DR. ERNEST BAI KOROMA
ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE PEACE AND SECURITY COUNCIL AND THE STATE OF PEACE AND SECURITY IN AFRICA INCLUDING
THE MASTER ROADMAP COMPRISING OF PRACTICAL STEPS TO SILENCE THE GUNS IN AFRICA BY THE YEAR 2020.
PRESENTED ON THE OCCASION OF THE
28TH ORDINARY SESSION OF THE AU ASSEMBLY, ON
30 JANUARY 2017, IN ADDIS ABABA,
The Chairperson of the Union: My Brother President Alpha Conde
Excellences, colleague Heads of States and Government;
The Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission,
Honorable Ministers
Commissioners
Invited Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen
Please accept my warmest greetings and best wishes for 2017!
I would first of all like to pay tribute to our men and women who have and continue to pay the ultimate price for the maintenance of peace and security on the continent.
Three years from now, in 2020, guns should be silent in Africa; this is the commitment we have undertaken on behalf of our people who continue to endure violence and abuse; who are being internally displaced or forced to flee their homelands; and it is the pledge we have made to create the enabling environment for our economies to thrive. This will remain the cornerstone in fulfilling our aspirations not to bequeath conflict to the next generation.
Since our last Assembly Meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, we identified, outlined and dealt with various crisis situations on the continent in fulfillment of our mandate. In this regard, the Peace and Security Council remained seized of the situations in Burundi, the Central Africa Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Libya, Mali/Sahel, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan. All our efforts to maintain peace and security in these situations have been consistent with the determination we expressed in the OAU/AU 50th Anniversary Solemn Declaration that we adopted on 25th May 2013, in Addis Ababa.
Excellencies,
Following the adoption of the Solemn Declaration, we have led several initiatives to provide practical guidance in actualizing our commitment to the grand Agenda 2020. These include devoting the 430th Meeting of the PSC as an Open Session on the theme: “Silencing the Guns: Pre-requisites for Realizing a Conflict-Free Africa by the Year 2020”. This Meeting underscored the importance of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) and called for its full implementation, particularly the African Standby Force and its Rapid Deployment Capability.
Mindful of the time exigency relating to Agenda 2020, the PSC determined that urgent action is needed if we are to achieve this ambitious but principled and attainable goal that we have set for ourselves. It is within this context that the PSC convened the Retreat on the theme: Practical Steps to Silence the Guns in Africa by Year 2020, from 7 to 9 November 2016, in Lusaka, Zambia.
The Retreat identified fourteen major scourges that continue to affect our continent; most notably:
- The persistence of terrorist activities;
- The illicit inflow, proliferation and circulation of arms and weapons;
- The illicit financial flows that continue to weaken our economies; and
- Our lack of decisive strategic dialogue with the international community, including the UN system, on global policies and practices negatively impacting on Africa and its people.
These major scourges have now been put into a Draft AU Master Roadmap comprising Practical Steps to Silence the Guns in Africa by Year 2020 – and referred to as the Lusaka 2016 Master Roadmap.
This Master Roadmap is premised on the principle that Africa should assume total responsibility and full ownership and control over its peace and security agenda. Additionally, it is realistic and places greater emphasis on implementation, monitoring and evaluation of our collective efforts towards to the attainment of the objective of silencing the Guns by 2020. The Master Roadmap is being submitted to this Assembly for endorsement for the immediate commencement of its implementation. The details will be elaborated by the Commissioner for Peace and Security, Ambassador Smail Chergui.
While we remain mindful of the ambitious but attainable goals outlined in the OAU/AU 50th Anniversary Solemn Declaration, the PSC is certain that, with the collective will, determination and selfless efforts of all AU Member States, we shall succeed in silencing the guns in Africa by the year 2020. I therefore call on all of us, brothers and sisters, to invoke the African spirit of solidarity, which guided our actions during the anti-colonial struggle, to marshal the necessary political will and material resources to actualize our dream of a conflict free and prosperous Africa by 2020.
I would like on behalf of the Peace and Security Council and the entire Union to express our profound condolence to the Government and People of the Republic of Kenya over the recent attacks on their forces serving in AMISOM. I wish a speedy recovery for those injured during the attack.
May I now take this opportunity to present to you the Lusaka 2016 Master Roadmap, and the draft decisions for consideration and adoption.
I thank you for your kind attention.
