African Union and UN Security Council talk on funds for peacekeeping

Current negotiations in Ethiopia, according to a UN secretary-general envoy, are expected to result in new finance arrangements for peace operations in Africa.

On Thursday, discussions over funding peacekeeping missions across the continent run by the pan-African organisation got underway between the UN and African Union (AU) security councils.

The talks are happening at a two-day annual gathering of the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) and UN Security Council (UNSC) in Addis Ababa, the country’s capital, according to the news agency AFP.

The AU’s commissioner for political affairs, peace, and security, Bankole Adeoye, urged nations to address the issue of “predictable, adequate, flexible, and sustainable financing” as he started the summit.

Since the creation of the African Peace and Security Architecture in 2002, the 55-nation group has had difficulty paying its peace efforts and has had to rely significantly on allies like the European Union.

An unnamed African diplomat told AFP that the continent’s nations are looking for “compulsory contributions” from UN member states for the peace missions. The funding issue has been on the UNSC’s agenda for more than ten years.

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The two councils will reportedly also talk about the security situation in Africa, particularly in Sudan, where ferocious fighting between army foes has been continuing on since mid-April, as well as in “Sahel, Somalia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”

Negotiations for a draught resolution between the two organisations have been proceeding on since 2018, despite lengthy delays that have purportedly been caused by divisions within the AU, although they have lately stagnated.

Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, the representative of the UN secretary-general to the AU, is optimistic that the discussions in Addis Ababa will provide a broad framework that would lead to new finance arrangements for peace operations on the continent.

According to AFP, Onanga-Anyanga stated that funding AU-led peace and security operations would increase both organisations’ ability to combat challenges to stability on the continent.

“The secretary-general has stated in his new agenda for peace that contemporary threats, formidable challenges to peace and security on the continent require a new state of responses laid by partners,” the speaker continued.

In his “New Agenda for Peace,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres highlighted the difficulties facing security and peace in Africa and called for changes to the UN’s peacekeeping efforts there.