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The US-Africa Leaders Summit: Focus On Conflict And Instability

The US-Africa Leaders Summit: Focus On Conflict And Instability

From August 4th to the 6th leaders from across the African continent will come to Washington, D.C. for what will be the largest high-level engagement between America and Africa in history. While the US-Africa Leaders Summit will have a variety of focuses, one of the major themes will be expanding cooperation on peace and regional stability.

Conflict and instability have been a scourge on the continent since decolonization, reducing human capital and preventing development. In some extreme examples, conflict has led to unfathomable development setbacks.

Conflict without justice breeds further conflict and further conflict further impairs development. Therefore, the continent cannot move forward without first working to end conflict and breed stability.

With this in mind, it is worth looking at some of the ongoing conflicts that will no doubt be discussed at the Summit. While some are ongoing and seemingly intractable, there is no better venue to make strides towards a lasting peace than a Summit between the world’s great power and 50 leaders from across Africa as any solution must be regional, for conflicts rarely remain confined within a single country’s borders.

South Sudan

The travails of the world’s newest country have also been well discussed here on AFKInsider. After President Salva Kiir sacked much of his cabinet, former Vice President Riek Machar allegedly orchestrated a coup attempt.

This led to an explosion of violence and the eruption of tensions that had simmered underneath the surface since independence. Kiir and Machar are members of the Dinka and Nuer tribes respectively, two of the country’s largest ethnic groups, giving the conflict sectarian fire in addition to political implications.

Despite more than 10,000 deaths, more than half a million displaced, severe famine, a Cholera outbreak in Juba, use of child soldiers, extraordinary sexual violence and a number of other horrific indicators, the representatives of Machar and Kiir have shown little to no interest in ending the conflict.

According to Think Progress, “they’ve done almost everything but, issuing bizarre decrees, increasing weapons stockpiles, and generally avoiding the hard work of ending a war.”

This has included threatening the United Nations, excluding civil society from negotiations, cracking down on use of the word “federalism” and ordering the capital punishment of curfew violators because only “witches” go out at night, all while refusing to attend peace negotiations.

Libya

Conor Friedersdorf, writing at The Atlantic, recently posed an important question. “Did Libya Prove War Hawks Right or Wrong?” While there is no definitive answer, the question has tremendous implications for Western intervention across the globe.

It also illustrates just how far the situation in Libya has deteriorated. Once the toast of interventionists, the country is now in the midst of utter lawlessness and civil war.

According to the Guardian, the conflict is ”…a wider struggle between Islamists and their opponents, triggered by elections in late June for a new parliament, the house of representatives, that saw steep losses for Islamist parties,” all the while the government has “collapsed.”

The situation in the country has gotten so bad that in the past week the United States, Germany, France, the UK and the Netherlands have all evacuated their respective diplomatic representatives.

Britain’s ambassador had his car ambushed and sprayed with gunfire while he was en route to neighboring Tunisia, a fate that the Americans were concerned enough about that when evacuating along the same road a few days prior they dispatched fighter jets above the road, ready to deal with militias.

While the British Ambassador is unharmed, this exceptional breach of international norms speaks to the chaos in Libya.

Nigeria/Boko Haram

While Nigeria has left the news somewhat since the #BringBackOurGirls campaign left the news (most of the girls are still in captivity, by the way) the country continues to be tormented by Boko Haram.

Just last weekend the group had what the New York Times described as “a long holiday weekend of kidnapping and suicide bombing.” Boko Haram is now clearly targeting not only Nigeria but also neighboring countries that have assisted in the hunt for the group.

On Sunday the group kidnapped the wife of Cameroon’s Vice Prime Minister, a significant step forward in aggression and visibility. This followed an attempt last week on the life of Nigeria’s most prominent opposition politician.

The threat from Boko Haram is so serious that there is a budding market in Nigeria for “Terrorism Insurance.”

According to Ventures Africa, the conflict in the country’s North is so prominent that over the last two years foreign professionals have begun to add kidnapping and ransom insurance to their policies and Nigerian professionals believe the Nigerian government will soon serve as a reinsurer for such policies. This is how overarching the threat of armed terrorism has become.

These three conflicts are likely to play an outsized role in the Summit’s conversations due to the focus on regional peace and security cooperation. All three of these have tremendous potential to spill outside of borders.

As previously mentioned, South Sudan has displaced more than half a million people across borders to neighboring Uganda, Ethiopia and other places. The chaos in Libya has been described as a “hotbed for extremists” that could serve as a terrorist training ground and has significant implications for the future of Western intervention.

Finally Boko Haram seems intent on not limiting its attacks to its home country of Nigeria. For this reason, discussions on regional peace and security cooperation must include trans-border threats. These conflicts fit the bill in full.

Andrew Friedman is a human rights attorney and freelance consultant who works and writes on legal reform and constitutional law with an emphasis on Africa. He can be reached via email at afriedm2@gmail.com or via twitter @AndrewBFriedman