This archive report was first published on 4 January 2020.
As the world welcomes a new decade, Africa is at a crossroads. The continent is grappling with conflicts, poverty, disease, and corruption that threaten to undermine its growth.
Despite progress made in containing violent conflicts, lasting peace remains elusive in parts of Africa. Emerging threats continue to pose a significant challenge to the continent's stability.
Against this backdrop, the African Union has declared 2020 as the year to silence the guns on the continent. The AU is taking a multi-faceted approach to achieve this goal, involving member states, regional economic communities, the private sector, civil society, and other stakeholders.
“Silencing the guns is a complex, yet noble responsibility of the African Union, its member states, its regional economic communities, and regional mechanisms, and indeed all African citizens,” said Smail Chergui, AU’s commissioner for Peace and Security, at a workshop held in Aswan, Egypt, last month.
The AU recognizes that peace is a shared responsibility among African governments, regional institutions, Africa’s partners, African citizens, the private sector, youth, women, and other special groups. The organization believes that peace can be attained through tolerance, conflict resolution, and prevention, good governance, and democracy.
The Aswan meeting was critical in intensifying multilateral coordination and collaboration of efforts to harmonize policies and actions on silencing the guns in Africa.
According to Ramtane Lamamra, the AU High Representative for Silencing the Guns in Africa, “giving a theme to the year 2020 is merely the beginning. The urgency in implementing the priorities we have decided upon, requires that we harness and concentrate all possible efforts.”
The AU Commission is placing emphasis on member states’ role in making the campaign a success. The organization argues that African countries are bound by a shared destiny and therefore, have a collective responsibility to the continent’s security.
As part of its Agenda 2063 framework, the AU heads of state and government adopted an ambitious initiative to silence the guns in Africa by 2020. While progress has been made in reducing state-driven conflicts, ethno-religious, resource, and politically-driven conflicts continue, especially in fragile regions, and remain one of the biggest threats to Africa.
The role of Africa’s youth in silencing the guns will be critical in a continent where young people bear the brunt of violent conflicts and are often manipulated by warring parties, both state and non-state actors, into taking up arms.
With the continent’s total population expected to increase to 1.6 billion in 2030, and three billion in 2065, young people in Africa will total 531 million by 2065—approximately 30.2 per cent of Africa’s population, according to UN estimates.
The African Union is looking up to this demographic dividend to change the course of the continent’s future.
