As fragilidades da União Africana

Frustrated by delays in setting up an African standby force, Pretoria and its allies are pushing ahead with a smaller, rapid reaction force. The cannons roared and the guns blazed as diplomats and politicians arrived for the African Union summit in Addis Abba on 24-31 January. The raging conflict and wanton killing in Central African Republic and South Sudan could not have provided a worse backdrop for the summiteers or clearer proof of their organisation’s inability to pre-empt conflict or intervene effectively when the fighting starts. As the records of the United Nations and European Union show, the AU is far from alone in such failures. It also points to the magnitude of the AU’s ambitions: to build a standby military force for the region to be sent into action by an authoritative continental security council and to commission teams of independent experts to raise governance standards through peer review. Last year’s 50th anniversary of the pan-African organisation, the AU and its precursor, the Organisation of African Unity, was distinctly self-congratulatory. This sentiment was not widely shared outside AU headquarters and presidential palaces. Nevertheless, several quiet dissidents within the system are trying to nudge the AU towards effectiveness and independence from foreign aid givers. For such reformers, it was a summit of half-measures and compromise. The formal agenda – the launch of the Year of Agriculture and Food Security – was quickly passed over in favour of the tougher negotiations about an African army and the money to finance it. Africa Confidential