African Union: The double summit of the institution ended this Saturday in Malabo with no closing ceremony

The double summit of the African Union ended on Saturday 28 May in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. The work mainly focused on humanitarian crises caused by terrorism and unconstitutional changes of government in Africa. At the end of these few days of debates, the African leaders left in secret for their respective countries. No closing ceremony and speech, no final declaration.

This AU summit is taking place against the backdrop of five coups in Africa (Guinea-Conakry, Burkina Faso, Mali, Sudan and Chad). Not to mention that terrorism is gaining ground in almost every region of the continent. Therefore, terrorism and unconstitutional change of power were issues of concern at the conference.

Terrorism, a plague on all regions of Africa

In his opening speech, Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the AU Commission, said that “terrorism is a virus that is progressively infecting all regions of the continent, from Libya to Mozambique, from Mali to Somalia, including the Sahel, the Lake Chad Basin and eastern DRC”.

However, the Chadian diplomat did not fail to denounce “insufficient African solidarity towards the victim countries”. He therefore called on leaders to take courageous and concrete steps to establish a pan-African military force. The latter has been one of the resolutions of AU summits since the early 2000s. “The political will is lacking when we have the means and men; African forces number some 2.7 million, mobilising only 1-2% of them and providing them with the necessary means would reduce our dependence on foreign forces,” he said.

Unconstitutional changes of government

Furthermore, during the debates, several heads of state or their representatives pointed to foreign “interference”, the “neo-colonialism” of certain powers and “mercenaries” to explain coups or justify the perpetuation of strong powers.

While severely condemning coups in Africa, the AU Commission Chairperson said that the recent coups were “the result of the inability of democratically elected civilian governments to fight terrorism” before calling on African leaders: “Let us stop looking the other way when the political practices of our states clash with the rules and principles of virtuous governance that we have unanimously adopted. Moussa Faki Mahamat also condemned the ‘creeping coups’ that constitute, among other things, ‘amendments to constitutions for the purpose of seizing power’.

Finally, the double summit that closed on Saturday gave no clear indication of the direction taken. Even if the Equatorial Guinean ambassador to the African Union, Crisantos Obama Ondo, reassures that a “declaration” has been adopted containing “an important decision” and refuses to give the quintessence of it.