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4.6

Comoros

African Union peacekeepers returned to Comoros in 2007, a little more than a year AU Electoral and Security Assistance Mission in Comoros (MAES) after the withdrawal of the AU Mission in Support of Elections in Comoros (AMISEC), • Authorization Date 9 May 2007 (Communiqué of the which was authorized by the AU Peace and AU Peace and Security Council) Security Council in March 2006. The elec- • Start Date May 2007 tions of May 2006 were followed by a sense • Head of Mission Francisco Madeira (Mozambique) of calm and stability throughout the country. • Strength as of Troops: 300 However, disagreements with the island of 30 September 2007 Anjouan over scheduled elections for presi- dents on each of the autonomous islands forced the AU to deploy its second peace op- eration to the island: the AU Electoral and Se- the presidents of each autonomous island com- curity Assistance Mission in Comoros (MAES) ing to an end in 2007—was to be followed by in May 2007. While MAES was initially man- elections for new presidents on each of the dated to provide security during the election three islands on 10 June 2007. However, Pres- period, the prospect of renewed hostilities ident Mohamed Bacar of Anjouan refused to meant that the mission’s 300 peacekeepers re- relinquish power at the end of his term of of- mained deployed well into the close of the fice. Following the federal government’s ap- year. pointment of an interim president for Anjouan When both Anjouan and Moheli islands in early May, forces loyal to Bacar attacked declared independence from Comoros in federal offices and clashed with government 1997, federal security forces sent to restore forces stationed there, killing two. An AU order clashed with separatists, leaving forty envoy was immediately dispatched to assess dead and causing consternation among the the situation. With continuing tensions, the AU archipelago’s regional neighbors. Peace and Security Council authorized the de- The Organization of African Unity (OAU) ployment of the 300-strong MAES peace oper- became involved in resolving the conflicts on ation, with a mandate to maintain security in the islands in the mid-1990s, with the deploy- support of free and fair elections. ment of the small Observer Mission to Co- The deployment of MAES, however, was moros (OMIC) in 1998. The OAU-supported contained to the main island of Grand Co- negotiations culminated in the Fomboni Ac- more, and thus had little impact on the bel- cords in 2001, which provided for a referendum ligerent Anjouan. While authorities on Grand on a new constitution in advance of national Comore and Moheli chose to delay the 10 elections. Under the Fomboni Accords, each June elections by one week, elections in An- island has substantial autonomy, with a four- jouan proceeded on schedule, with Bacar year rotating presidency. claiming 89 percent of the vote, in an election The complex electoral arrangement de- that that was deemed illegitimate by the inter- vised by the OAU in 2001—with the terms of national community.

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104 • MISSION NOTES

Bacar continued to ignore calls by the AU MAES’s mandated tasks to include, among other for the elections to be held again, prompting the things, enforcement of the sanctions. As the year Peace and Security Council to impose travel and drew to a close, MAES peacekeepers had begun financial sanctions on the renegade Anjouanese patrolling the waters around Anjouan to enforce authorities in October 2007. The AU broadened the AU-authorized travel ban.