This report explores the experience of the African Union High Level Panels for Darfur, Sudan and South Sudan. The report finds that the current peacemaking efforts in Darfur, Sudan and South Sudan have been more fragmented and narrowly focus, unlike the comprehensive, principled, and coordinated multilateral approaches witnessed in the last 10-15 years. Finally, the paper recommends the application of lessons to the current conflict in Sudans. Read more here

The African Union (AU) and Regional Economic Communities (REC) have become pivotal peacemakers in the two decades since they began the construction of a joint African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) with the objective to provide “African solutions to African problems.” The African organisations have developed normative policy frameworks and organisational structures for mediation and preventive diplomacy. The peacemaking institutions, which were developed with the assistance of international development partners, reflect the long-standing peacemaking experience,…

Abstract The puzzle of the African Union mediation is that it enjoys regional effectiveness in leading peace processes and yet often fails to prevent atrocity crimes. While existing studies focus on the lack of capacity to explain failures, the author draws on atrocity mediation literature that emphasizes coercive strategies for ripening to explore widely significant factors associated with the AU mediation. The author adopts the “framework of mediator behavior” in international mediation studies to analyze…

The inability of the African Union (AU) to deal with increasing outbreaks of violence and conflict has cast a lot of doubt regarding the organization’s ability to lead Africa in a 21st century characterized by massive geopolitical dynamics. To answer the critical question of whether the AU is still relevant today, the study employed a strict textual analysis of the relevant literature on the role of the AU in conflict prevention, eradication, and by extension…

Spoilers on the battlefield and in the negotiations process have completely undermined the search for peace in South Sudan. After numerous threats from the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the lack of any meaningful and escalating consequences for significant cease-fire violations and obstruction has emboldened spoilers on all sides and led to a spiraling of the conflict. The recently signed Cessation of Hostilities (CoH) agreement offers no respite, as it was…

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