African Union (AU) troops this week supported the Comoros army to take control of the rebel island of Anjouan. The crisis began in June 2007 when African Union monitored elections were due to be held on the islands of Anjouan, Grand Comore and Moheli. The Union government of Comoros postponed the elections on Anjouan “citing irregularities and intimidation in the run-up to voting” but Mohamed Bacar went on with voting preparations, printing ballot papers and claiming a landslide victory. Following the elections, AU efforts failed to break the deadlock between the Union government and Bacar who claimed the presidency of Anjouan. In February 2008, the AU Peace and Security Council “revised its stance on the political conflict and moved to backing the Union government's position of using military force”. 1,500 AU troops backed the Union government army’s intervention on the island on March 24.

Also, in peace and security news, Africa’s defence and security ministers are meeting this week to discuss progress towards the establishment of an African Standby Force (ASF), which is mandated “to intervene in various cases, including violation of human rights, war crimes and genocide as well as providing humanitarian assistance”. The ASF is facing challenges regarding the harmonisation and rationalisation of the five Regional Standby Brigades set up by the Regional Economic Communities and which have evolved at difference paces. According to the AU’s Peace and Security Commissioner “another chronic challenge facing the AU is the paucity of funding” for the Standby Force.

Following a global assessment on levels of food insecurity, the European Commission (EC) has selected seventeen priority countries to benefit from a food program valued at 160 million euros, the biggest annual amount to date. All East African Community countries except Rwanda are included in the relief program, as are Sudan, Chad, Somalia, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Zimbabwe and the Sahel Countries. Meanwhile, Oscar Kimanuka analyses the new opportunities presented by Chinese aid and trade as an alternative to United States and European domination, warning in closing that “whatever Africa may be gaining from its renewed interest in China, we should not lose sight of our own interest as Africans. We need to benefit from these relations for the sake of the development of our people”. Also in aid-related news, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has pledged US$10 billion by 2010 for African country-members of the OIC under the Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development. The reduction or cancellation of debt owed by African countries to member countries of the Ummah was also discussed at the recent OIC summit in Dakar, Senegal.

Upcoming AU related events include the third African media summit, which will be held in Tunis, Tunisia, next week under the theme “how youth can help change the image of Africa in the re-branding process”. In addition, the AU will be holding a meeting of ministers of justice in mid-April which will discuss, amongst other things, the legal instrument on the merger of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Court of Justice of the African Union as well as the harmonisation of ratification procedures in member states. Further, the third conference of African Ministers for Integration will be held in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, between May 19-23.

In a promising development for civil society and citizen participation in regional integration, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) held a workshop this week “to familiarize the civil society in West Africa with the new vision of ECOWAS and the Economic and Monetary Union of West Africa (UEMOA) and help deepen the regional integration process”. The workshop took place in in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, under the theme “from Integration of States to Integration of Peoples in West Africa: Broadening Dialogue to Embrace Civil Society”.

Lastly, as Zimbabwe prepares for elections on March 29, the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) will be sending an observer mission of twenty parliamentarians representing the five regions of Africa, supported by staff from the secretariat of PAP and the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa.