African Leaders Agree on Steps to End Conflicts

(PANA)--African leaders have pledged more sanctions against spoilers of peace initiatives and agreed to take tougher actions in future to deal with state sponsors of terror, armed rebellion in African Union (AU) member states and piracy.

Rounding off a special summit on conflicts, the African leaders also reiterated their commitment to deal with the scourge of conflicts and violence in the continent once and for all, and immediately called on all African states to comply fully with all the treaties that have been rolled out to boost Africa’s democracy and good governance.

In what appeared to be a carrot and stick approach to dealing with the conflicts, the leaders agreed that the AU would enforce strict sanctions against groups, which refuse to cooperate with mediators or decline to implement an agreed framework for ending any conflict. ‘We reiterate our full support for all ongoing peace efforts on the continent and urge all concerned parties to leave no stone unturned to end the conflicts they are party to, bring hope to their people and build sustainable peace’, the African leaders said in the ‘Tripoli Declaration’.

According to the declaration, in which the continent’s leaders agreed to work towards ending the African conflicts in a more comprehensive manner, the AU Commission would be granted more financial resources to increase the staffing levels at its offices and to train more experts on conflict resolution. The capacity of African universities should also be increased to give them the required skills and ability to explore the nature of African conflicts, to investigate which measures could succeed and which ones could fail in attempting to resolve any particular conflicts.

And in a rare admission that the continent had failed to end the outbreak of conflicts, the African leaders agreed to push forward the implementation of past treaties dealing with good governance, elections and human rights. The AU Commission was also mandated to present a complete report on which African countries have complied with the past treaties on human rights, transparent elections, rule of law, democracy and the control of arms.

Meanwhile, the African leaders also agreed to stop ‘unconstitutional reforms’, which were also responsible for political tension in the continent. Without giving any specific details, they warned that unconstitutional reforms, such as the change of laws to allow sitting heads of state to extend their tenure in office, were to blame for increasing election related tension in the continent.

‘We reiterate the need for states to promote good governance, to abide by the rule of law and to respect their own constitutions, especially when it comes to introducing constitutional reforms, bearing in mind that failure to do so can lead to situations of tension, which in turn precipitate political crises’, the Tripoli Declaration stated.

The African leaders resolved to ensure the AU has enough troops and observers to deploy in case of a conflict, to enable the continent respond more rapidly to emerging conflicts

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