On Tuesday 23 October, the Congolese Ambassador and current Chair of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union, Lazare Makayetr Safouesse, asked the Europeans to intervene in favour of financing the African Union Peace Fund through the UN Security Council.
“We have decided to create a Peace Fund. We have mobilised $55 million US and await the extra that we need. Our appeal to the EU is to lobby for this fund to be supported”, he told the press, following a two-day meeting with the EU Political and Security Committee (COPS).
Makayetr Safouesse explained that the contributions were raised by the UN Security Council (UNSC). Indeed, although this is a purely African initiative and comes in the framework of the commitment for Africa to have financial autonomy on a number of challenges, he called for this to be topped up by those who are “principally responsible for peacekeeping”, the Security Council. He explained that the EU contribution came from the member states that comprise it, in the framework of the UNSC.
According to the Ambassador, the UN Security Council should adopt a resolution on the subject in December, but the United States appear to oppose any increased UN contribution to the peacekeeping operations of the AU.
For her part, the Chair of COPS, Sofie From-Emmesberg, laid emphasis on reinforcing cooperation between COPS and the African Union Peace and Security Council.
During the meeting, the two sides acknowledged the importance of translating their political cooperation in the field of conflict prevention into specific initiatives such as joint field visits, joint sessions, developing shared understanding and analysis of crisis situations, as well as examining the possibilities of joint early action.
From-Emmesberg said that the EU could support capability development, create and reinforce tools to allow the African Union to participate and be on manoeuvres, for instance in mediation.
The two organisations also discussed progress made in resolving conflict/crisis situations and threats to peace and stability in Mali/Sahel, the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), South Sudan, Somalia and Burundi.
The EU committee and the Council of the AU also “underlined the importance of effective multilateralism in the rules-based international order with the United Nations at its core” and “acknowledged the importance of strengthened AU-EU-UN cooperation”.
The joint declaration is available at: https://bit.ly/2AnUjoS. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)