African leaders met in the Angolan capital on Sunday for an extraordinary African Union summit aimed at overhauling the continent’s security architecture as prolonged conflicts and political instability continue to stretch peacebuilding mechanisms to their limits.
The 21st Extraordinary Session of the AU Assembly of Heads of State focused on adopting a binding action plan and implementation matrix to accelerate conflict prevention, amidst lingering violence in Sudan, the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the Sahel, and Mozambique.
Opening the summit, senior AU officials and regional delegates voiced growing frustration over the continent’s reliance on external partners and the limited impact of existing security frameworks.
“Financing Africa’s peace agenda and the goal of silencing the guns can no longer depend primarily on external resources,” said Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, Chairperson of the African Union Commission. “Are we equipped to confront these challenges with the strategies, mechanisms, and resources currently available?”
Youssouf called for a shift toward early intervention, arguing that security-only responses had proven inadequate to address deep-seated political, social, and economic drivers of instability.
The summit, hosted by Angolan President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço—the AU’s designated champion for peace and reconciliation—comes as the bloc faces heightened criticism over its ability to enforce peace agreements and counter unconstitutional changes of government.
Several delegates echoed calls for greater continental autonomy in handling crises.
“Some of these problems are externally sponsored,” said Zimbabwe’s Vice President Constantino Chiwenga on the sidelines of the meeting. “Do we continue to allow ourselves to be manipulated? Do we want to continue to depend on other countries, even on how to solve our own problems?”
Leaders are expected to conclude the one-day summit by issuing a final communique detailing new operational directives for the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) and the AU Peace Fund.
