Besides the socio-economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on African economies, peace and security matters are on agenda as the 35th Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government opens on Saturday, February 5.
After a two year interruption due to Covid-19, Ethiopia has welcomed the resumption of the AU Summit in its capital city Addis Ababa. During this session, Senegal President Macky Sall will assume the Chairmanship of the Union from current Chair President Felix Tshisekedi of DR Congo.
Dr Vincent Biruta, Rwanda's Minister of Foreign Affairs, is representing President Paul Kagame at the Summit.
In his opening statement, Moussa Faki Mahamat Chairperson of the African Union Commission, noted that: "The continent’s security situation today is deeply marked by the metastasis of terrorism and the dangerous resurgence of unconstitutional changes. Moreover, the two phenomena establish causal links known to all.”
"The security situation of the continent now calls for a real new approach which should question our peace and security architecture and its correlation with the new destabilizing factors in Africa.”
Earlier this week, on February 2, Mahamat had noted that the threats are revealed in several forms: intra-state conflicts, the spread of deadly terrorism in the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, the Great Lakes regions and southern Africa, with a stated desire to destabilize States largely weakened by deficiencies in political, economic and social governance.
The resurgence of unconstitutional changes of government have "dangerously multiplied” in recent months, including the situation that occurred in Guinea Bissau where, earlier this month, President Umaro Sissoco Embalo survived an attempted coup but said it may have been linked to drug trafficking.
In the past year alone, coups have occurred in Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Chad.
In addition, finding lasting solutions to conflicts facing Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia, among other countries, remains elusive.
Worse still, there is the Covid-19 pandemic to deal with.
According to Mahamat, the socio-economic impact of the pandemic on African economies has been reflected in the recession that the continent is facing for the first time in decades.
As noted, Africa has experienced a decline in activity of about 2%, aggravated by increased inflation and a growing debt burden, all of which could jeopardize the envisaged post-Covid-19 economic recovery.
"According to studies conducted by the African Development Bank, Africa will need to mobilize US$154 billion to effectively respond to the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Under these conditions, our expectations for achieving the ambitions of Agenda 2063 will undoubtedly be revised downwards,” Mahamat noted on Wednesday.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that the continent needs additional financing of $285 billion through 2025 to respond to the pandemic, and at least $500 billion to get back on track to pre-Covid-19 levels of economic performance.
But, according to reports, while the IMF allocated almost $650 billion in Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to address the global impacts and aftershocks of the pandemic, Africa only got $33 billion — just five percent — of the total allocation.