Continent Will Slide to Authoritarianism, Chaos Unless Guns Are Silenced Now: ACCORD Warns

EAN,February 4/2020 The African continent will slide towards authoritarianism and go back another thirty years unless it silences the guns now, according to African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) .

In an exclusive interview with ENA, ACCORD Executive Director Vasu Gounden warned, “if we do not act in a sense of urgency, and when I say urgency I mean today; …we will be in chaos in the next decade, we will slide towards authoritarianism and this continent will go back another thirty years.”

He noted that silencing the guns really means ending conflict, and there are three issues that Africa needs to deal with. The issues are security, governance and development. “Development is a long-term process, security an immediate issue that the continent needs to deal with.”

Africa is at crossroads, the executive director stated. “We need visionary leadership. This summit of the AU is a very crucial summit. It is not about restructuring the African Union; it is about restructuring the African continent,” he pointed out.

According to Gounden, the urgency of silencing the guns in the context of security cannot be done without good governance. He stressed that African “needs good governance.”

The executive director finally noted: “To silence the guns is an overarching protocol that covers all of the different aspects. It covers security, governance as well as development. We must approach all of these together.”

Advisor to the AUC Commissioner of Peace and Security on Silencing the Guns, Ambassador Osman Keh Kamara said on his part “the AU has done its part. It is now left with member states to ensure that sections of the roadmap are implemented at the domestic level.”

It is to be recalled that African leaders have passed solemn declaration during the 50th anniversary not to bequeath the burden of conflicts to the next generation of Africans and undertake to end all wars in Africa by 2020.

To this end, the framework specifically targets the year 2020 as the deadline by which all guns will be silent in Africa. It also envisages that there will be functional mechanisms for peaceful resolution of conflicts at all levels to nurture a culture of peace and tolerance among the peoples of Africa.

According to Ambassador Osman Keh Kamara, if member states implement sections or parts that are applicable to their respective countries, guns will be silenced.

“When there is conflict it hampers, development and every aspect of human development. Therefore, we need to end these wars in the continent to bring about development,” he underscored.

The advisor pointed out that the AUC cannot do anything until member states domesticate the roadmap to silence the guns in the continent.

The AU 33rd Summit is underway in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, under the theme“Silencing the guns: Creating conducive conditions for Africa's development.”

Data show that conflict has looted Africa over 100 billion USD since the end of the Cold War in 1991.

The continent has witnessed some of the biggest fatalities, foods and humanitarian crises and obliteration of social cohesion coupled with total breakdown of economies and decimation of the environmental and political landscape.