African Union - The African Mirror

Nov

28

2025

West Africa’s coup contagion: regional bodies scramble as Guinea-Bissau becomes latest domino to fall

NEWS

WEDNESDAY’S military seizure of power in Guinea-Bissau, which saw army officers arrest President Umaro Sissoco Embaló and suspend the electoral process just hours before election results were due, represents far more than another coup in one of Africa's most unstable nations. It is a stark reminder that five years after Mali's 2020 coup triggered a domino effect across West Africa, regional institutions remain largely powerless to stem the tide of military takeovers - or address the conditions that spawn them. The observer missions from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union, which included former presidents…

Nov

13

2025

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

Amnesty International pressures African Union as Tanzania buries its dead

NEWS

AS funerals continue across Tanzania for victims killed by security forces following last month's disputed election, Amnesty International has launched an urgent campaign calling on the African Union and the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights to mandate independent investigations into what it describes as grave human rights violations. The campaign comes as mourners have been gathering at churches and family homes throughout the country, with funeral services held for those killed during the post-election violence. At Kinyerezi Catholic Parish in Dar es Salaam, services were held for victims, including a retired police officer, two teachers, a driver, a…

Nov

05

2025

By SAMIR RAMZY

Peace in Sudan? 3 reasons why mediation hasn’t worked so far

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

SUDAN has been embroiled in a civil war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces since April 2023, sparked by a power struggle between the two parties. The war has displaced more than 14 million people. Over half the population of about 50 million is facing acute levels of hunger. Several mediation initiatives have been launched since the start of the war, with limited success. The African Union has also been unable to get the main warring parties to agree to a permanent ceasefire. The four countries leading the main peace mediation effort (known as the Quad) are…

Oct

16

2025

By ALAN HIRSCH and VICTOR AMADI

Travel between African countries is still hard: fresh ideas to get movement flowing

BUSINESS

IT remains too difficult for Africans to travel between African countries. Africa-wide reforms have failed. The keynote continental agreement, the African Union’s Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, adopted in 2018, still has only four country ratifications from 55 members. A new report of the African Union bemoans the low (though slightly improved) level of human integration in Africa. It describes the main challenges as legal fragmentation, weak institutional frameworks, security concerns, and limited mutual recognition of documents and qualifications. Nevertheless, some consolation can be drawn from the fact that African migration governance systems have been moving in the right…

Oct

10

2025

By MUTHONI WANYEKI

Those responsible for Sudan’s war have no business being involved in the peace

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE UN General Assembly has ended. Coverage was devoted to the French president being stuck on New York sidewalks due to the passage of the US president’s convoy; to the US president lambasting the UN for a faulty escalator and a stalled teleprompter; to the same US president’s erroneous remarks about (among so many other things) solar and wind power. But many things happened at UNGA besides the weird and wonderful. Lip service was paid to the ongoing atrocities and outrages in Palestine, Sudan, and Ukraine. Beyond the lip service, however, there did seem (finally!) to be some energy on…

Oct

09

2025

By ANNAH LAKE ZHU and AMADOU NDIAYE

Africa’s ‘great green wall’ is stalling: in Senegal very few planted areas show progress

SUSTAINABILITY

AFRICA’S Great Green Wall project began as an ambitious plan to build a 15-kilometre-wide band of trees across the north of Africa. The African Union launched the project in 2007 with plans for the trees to extend for 6,000 kilometres through 11 countries in the Sahel, restoring 100 million hectares of land from Senegal to Djibouti and Ethiopia. Its main aim was to prevent the Sahara Desert from advancing. But the Great Green Wall’s also been billed as a solution to climate change, poverty, and even extremism. Senegal has been one of the most active countries implementing the Great Green…

Oct

02

2025

By The African Mirror

South Africa pushes new G20 framework to tackle Africa’s growth barriers

BUSINESS

SOUTH Africa has proposed a five-year G20 Africa Engagement Framework aimed at addressing critical impediments to the continent's economic development, the country's Director-General, Dr Duncan Pieterse, has announced at the African Union's finance committee meeting. Speaking at the 8th Ordinary Session of the AU's Specialised Technical Committee on Finance in his capacity as representative of South Africa's G20 Presidency, Pieterse outlined four key barriers constraining African growth: weak economic institutions, infrastructure gaps, macroeconomic vulnerabilities, and high capital costs. "These impediments to growth are deeply interconnected and require multiple, coordinated, and cross-cutting interventions," Pieterse told delegates, adding that South Africa has…

Sep

26

2025

By STAFF REPORTER

DRC, Rwanda set October deadline to end decades of bloodshed

NEWS

THE Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda have agreed to begin implementing a concrete military operation on October 1 to end one of Africa's longest-running conflicts, following high-level negotiations in Washington that could determine the fate of millions of civilians trapped in eastern Congo's war zone. The breakthrough came during a two-day meeting of the Joint Security Coordination Mechanism, where diplomats from both nations — alongside mediators from the United States, Qatar, and the African Union — hammered out an "Operational Order" designed to neutralise the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and end Rwanda's military presence in…

Sep

16

2025

By BONFACE ORUCHO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

Turning the tap off illicit money flows

NEWS

A new African Union (AU) stocktake shows governments are putting scaffolding in place to stem losses from illicit financial flows. “Countries have created laws, registries, and agencies that didn’t exist ten years ago,” the AU High-Level Panel Secretariat noted in an August report. “The challenge now is translating these systems into actual outcomes.” The AU report captures a continent shifting from exposure to execution. Nearly every country has established a financial intelligence unit. Beneficial ownership registries are proliferating. New transfer pricing rules are on the books. Anti-corruption agencies are being retooled with broader mandates. Yet, the scaffolding is uneven. Enforcement…

Sep

02

2025

By NOMTHA HADI

How to harness the ocean for prosperity: funding African innovations can unlock the blue economy

SUSTAINABILITY

AFRICA has an enormous ocean area at its disposal. There are almost 20 million square kilometres of ocean, seas and inland water that could be developed into environmentally sustainable blue economies. The G20 group of 19 of the world’s largest economies and the African Union also view the blue economy as key to developing the continent. Nomtha Hadi researches blue economies. She talks to The Conversation Africa about the main challenges in developing blue economies in Africa. What is the blue economy? The blue economy refers to using water and ocean resources to create economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs…