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II. United Nations and Sub-Saharan Africa

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II. United Nations and Sub-Saharan Africa II. United Nations and Sub-Saharan Africa United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon emphasised African ownership and good leadership in connection with the MDGs. At an Africa Consultative Forum on the MDGs in September in Kigali, he said that Africans needed both foreign aid and fairer trading terms with other regions to achieve the MDGs by their 2015 deadline: “They need the tools with which they themselves will create jobs, generate income and unleash the continent’s own potential.” President Paul Kagame of Rwanda stressed that while the goals must remain an international priority, African states must see that it was in their own interest to pursue and achieve an MDG agenda. The perspective of developed nations was based on “paternalism not partnership, on charity not self-reliance and on promises unfulfilled rather than real change on the ground”. In their dealings throughout the year, Ban Ki-moon and the AU Commission chairperson, Jean Ping, linked progress on MDGs and development in Africa to security issues. Conflict was the greatest impediment to sustainable development, they said, when celebrating the International Day of Peace on 21 September, thus framing the AU-UN Peace and Security Partnership as a necessary precondition for Africa’s development. Africa in the UN African agency in framing and implementing the AU-UN Peace and Security Part- nership was most evident in the unprecedented hybrid AU-UN peacekeeping operation deployed in the Darfur region of the Sudan (UNAMID) and the support extended by the UN to the AU mission in Somalia (AMISOM). Despite global and regional high- level meetings, visits and policies regarding Somalia during the year, the AU and IGAD appeared weak and indecisive. The UNSC appeared detached, failing to take the situation seriously. After the 11 July twin bomb attacks in Kampala, Uganda wanted an AMISOM mandate upgrade (to enable pre-emptive strikes against the al-Shabaab militants who claimed responsibility). The AU Summit on 28 July backed out of supporting Uganda’s request, but endorsed IGAD’s proposal that more troops from African countries should join Uganda and Burundi: 2,000 Ugandan soldiers to join the 7,200 authorised troops, and preferably an increase to a total of 20,000 troops. Explaining the move, Jean Ping said a mandate change would have necessitated more equipment. The UNSC remained reluctant to convert AMISOM into a UN peace operation, and UN member states were unwilling to 18 • United Nations and Sub-Saharan Africa pay for an AU enforcement mission. However, the UNSC decided for the first time to use the assessed contributions of the UN peacekeeping budget to help finance an AU regional force. A new UN Trust Fund, overseen by a ten-nation board, channelled equipment and logistics from April onwards. The Tanzanian diplomat, Augustine Mahiga, was appointed special representative of the UN Secretary-General to Somalia on 9 June. He judged that AMISOM’s current mandate was sufficient in the circumstances. IGAD members, such as Kenya, and the three African non-permanent states on the UNSC, Uganda, Gabon and Nigeria, incessantly challenged the “global neglect” of Somalia. Jerry John Rawlings was appointed as AU High Representative for Somalia. Upon an AU request, the UNSC authorised 4,000 additional troops for AMISOM in December, raising the number to 12,000, but at year’s end only about 4,500 soldiers from Uganda and Burundi had been deployed. Somalia was argued to constitute a global security issue because of: the fighting between Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed and al-Shabaab and other forces affiliated to the al Qaida terrorist group; the con- tinuous flow of refugees; small arms and light weapons being transferred from Somalia to its neighbours; the humanitarian crisis; and the piracy crisis. In relation to the last, the UN spent the year formulating a more comprehensive strategy on piracy off the coast of Somalia. There was concern that continued hijackings of ships further out at sea, and the ever more innovative financing mechanisms behind these operations, revealed the need for improved coordination between the international (Western led) maritime operations and the military forces in the region. Ban Ki-moon called on UN members to continue strengthening the capacities of the TFG and AMISOM on land, and to further develop local law and security institutions. In April, a judicial approach involving the UN Office on Drugs and Crime was boosted to develop options for investigating and prosecuting suspected pirates. In November, the UNSC renewed for another 12 months the authorisa- tion for states and regional organisations to enter Somalia’s territorial waters and “use all necessary means” to fight piracy. UN Special Adviser on Africa Cheick Sidi Diarra made a forthright observation: the world had to change its perceptions of Africa from a continent forever dependent on inter- national aid and support to a continent of huge potential. He referred to Africa’s human capital: a billion people, at least 60% of them young. Young, educated Africans were the future of good leadership in Africa. In addition, Africa possessed natural resources, consumers, good producers of commodities, and transformation and processing potential. All these were reasons to breathe new life into the plea for the international community to support Africa’s home grown initiatives, such as NEPAD. In July, the continent’s leaders endorsed the African Platform for Development Effectiveness (APDev), which aimed to ensure effectiveness and sustainable development and to discourage dependence on foreign aid. He added that it would be the responsibility of African leaders if NEPAD failed..
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