Perhaps the African Union’s 36th ordinary session was not so ordinary. The summit, which took place in Addis Ababa and brought together — according to the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry statement — 35 heads of state and four government leaders, saw the Israeli observer delegation kicked out of the opening ceremony on Saturday.
“Israel views seriously the incident in which the deputy for Africa, Ambassador Sharon Bar-Li, was removed from the African Union hall despite her status as an accredited observer with access badges,” said Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lior Hayat.
According to The Times of Israel, “security guards came up to the Israeli delegation during the opening ceremony and demanded they leave.” The newspaper continued, “video showed the Israelis, led by Foreign Ministry Deputy Director General for Africa Sharon Bar-Li, leaving after several minutes of discussion.”
Hayat added: “It is sad to see that the African Union has been taken hostage by a small number of extremist countries such as Algeria and South Africa, driven, hatred and controlled by Iran. We call on the African countries to stand against these actions that harm the organisation of the African Union itself and the entire continent,” he said.
An African Union official told AFP that Bar-Li had not received an invitation to attend the meeting. The African Union extended a non-transferable invitation to Israel’s Ambassador to the African Union, Alili Admasu. “It is unfortunate that the person concerned misused this gesture,” he added.
Regarding Israel pointing accusing fingers at South Africa and Algeria for the incident, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Spokesman Vincent Magwenya told AFP at the summit, “they must substantiate their claim.”
Influential members of the African Union had expressed their disapproval of accepting Israel as an observer, saying the decision was not in line with the African Union’s policy in support of the Palestinians.
“It is difficult to imagine Israel attending the next African Union summit without consensus as is the case with other African decisions,” said Ahmed Al-Sayed, a professor of African studies in Cairo.
TRADE AND REFORM
The African Union session tackled the organisation’s institutional reform, reaching no decisions that can be implemented on the ground.
“Very little joint African work has been achieved due to the lack of political will and fragile technical and administrative abilities of the union,” Al-Sayed added. “It is important to remember that the African Union does not have the power to force its members to implement decisions,” he noted.
Additionally, many of the union’s decisions lack a specific timeframe. Meanwhile, the free trade zone the union accredited in its 2020 summit did not see the light due to discord over the timeframe to reduce customs fees, especially in the poorest countries.
The African Free Trade Zone could become the largest single market in the world in terms of population. The continent’s population is estimated at 1.3 billion. A free trade area will raise intra-African trade from 15 per cent to more than 50 per cent, with a total crude output of $3.4 trillion annually. It will also provide 18 million additional jobs before 2035, and contribute to lifting 50 million Africans out of extreme poverty.
TERRORISM
Some African countries are engaged in vicious conflicts with terrorist groups, such as in the Sahel nations of Chad, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Mauritania. All these countries were cooperating with France in Operation Barkhane. Mali, however, withdrew from the group after the recent military coup.
Further south, the countries of the Lake Chad Basin, comprising Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Benin, are suffering from the Boko Haram terrorist organisation. Horn of Africa countries suffer the attacks from Shabaab Al-Mujahideen, while other terrorist groups extend their activities deep into the continent until north Mozambique.
CONFLICT IN THE GREAT LAKES
The African Great Lakes area is facing a time bomb following the surge in ethnic violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, especially areas bordering Rwanda. Kinshasa accuses the Kigali government of supporting the rebellion led by the M23 group.
Before the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, a meeting of East African countries was held in Burundi. The leaders of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Congo called for the withdrawal of armed forces from eastern Congo. The deadline has been set for 30 March but nothing has materialised thus far.
“It is difficult to reach a serious settlement of the conflict in the Great Lakes due to the wars and aspirations of the Tutsi,” said Al-Sayed. In 1994, the Tutsi and Hutu engaged in a 100-day conflict, viewed by many as one of the most horrifying massacres in the 20th century. More than 800,000 people died in the conflict. “The massacre resulted in the fall of the regime of president Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire (currently the Congo), and this is a sensitive issue for Kinshasa.”
The Great Lakes region has not seen significant stability since the independence of its countries in the early 1960s. Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania were occupied by the UK; Congo, Rwanda and Burundi by Belgium. During the Civil War (1997-2003) in the Congo, a large number of African countries endured the Great African War, which claimed the lives of millions of Africans.
UNCONSTITUTIONAL CHANGE
The African Union said on Sunday it has a “zero tolerance” policy on unconstitutional change, referring to Mali, Sudan, Burkina Faso, and Guinea.
The union had suspended the membership of Mali, Guinea, and Sudan in 2021 following a military takeover. In 2022, it froze the membership of Burkina Faso.
“The commission is ready to support these member states in their return to constitutional order. The idea is that democracy must take root and must be promoted and protected,” the AU’s Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security Bankole Adeoye told a press conference on the final day of the summit.
Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki said on Saturday: “These sanctions do not seem to be yielding the expected results… On the contrary, [they] arouse the distrust of the countries concerned, and seem to exacerbate the suffering of the population.”
The regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) bloc decided on Saturday to maintain sanctions on Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso and to impose travel bans on government officials and senior leaders in those countries.
“The sanctions may complicate the situation in Africa, a continent not as democratic as Europe,” said Khaled Mahmoud, a researcher in African affairs. “The country imposing the sanctions is not democratic itself. There are challenges to African elections, foremost among which are poverty and modest technical and economic capabilities. Moreover, there are many parts in different regions that are not accessible.”
Mahmoud added that, in Mali, for example, separatist movements and terrorist groups could dismantle the state, which “has accomplished almost nothing since its independence from France” in 1960. “In addition, democratic experiments in Africa have not achieved anything significant either. Democracy in Mali, for example, did not succeed in eradicating terrorism or eliminating the separatists. Then Mali sought the help of its former coloniser, France.”
Today, following the severing of communication with Paris, Mali’s new government is seeking the help of Russia.
FOOD
The new president of the summit, Ghazali Othmani, president of the Comoros Islands with a population of 850,000, called for the “total cancellation” of African debt without specifying the necessary mechanism.
The former president of the summit, Macky Sall, president of Senegal, presented a report on food in Africa, noting that the majority of member states were affected by the Ukraine war.
Inflation in Africa has reached unprecedented highs, hitting more than 100 per cent in some countries. The spectre of famine looms over Somalia, South Sudan, northern Kenya, northern Nigeria and large parts of Ethiopia, according to UN and relief organisations this year.
According to international reports, many sub-Saharan African countries have been severely affected by climate change in the past decade, and the prolonging of war in Ukraine and subsequent hikes in the prices of food commodities will exacerbate the problem even further.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 23 February, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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