Nearby, conflict in and around the Lake Chad Basin area has continued. A surge of violence this year in both Burkina Faso and Mali underscored the fragility of the governments in both countries. The Sahel is a region of particular concern, given the inability of either United Nations peacekeepers, the French military or the regional G5 Sahel security force to contain the conflict. And looking ahead, it is not difficult to see the pattern she describes – of new conflicts bubbling up alongside existing ones – repeat itself. With extensive footprints in conflict zones and disaster areas across the African continent, major humanitarian organisations have long functioned as a kind of canary in the coalmine – so if they are worried, other policymakers should be too. The pattern of new conflicts bubbling up alongside existing ones is likely to repeat itselfĭanzi’s opinion is worth paying attention to.
She used Burkina Faso as an illustrative example: in 2019, 750 000 people were displaced by violence there, forcing ICRC to set up a new emergency response, while maintaining their operations in neighbouring Mali and Niger. More concerning still was that new situations keep cropping up. Patricia Danzi, Regional Director for Africa for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), recently told journalists in Johannesburg that her organisation – along with other major humanitarian organisations – was struggling to cope with existing situations that strain already limited attention and resources. Its ‘silencing the guns’ initiative is aimed at ‘ending all wars, civil conflicts, gender-based violence, violent conflicts and preventing genocide in the continent by 2020.’ While no one can argue with that laudable goal, the continental body and its member states will have to work miracles to achieve it by the end of this year – especially when the trend seems to be heading in the other direction. Can African leaders repeat the show of unity achieved on continental free trade to silence the guns?įor the African Union, 2020 is supposed to be a landmark year.
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