Hopes rose in 2002 that some of Africa’s deadliest and most intransigent conflicts could soon be resolved, with peace deals or cease-fire agreements reached in six war-torn countries.
Sierra Leone, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Somalia and Burundi – countries that for much of the past decade have been a byword for strife – each made significant strides toward peace over the past year.
But observers say the real test will be whether the deals signed on paper will translate into peace in practise during 2003.
Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front rebels handed over the last of their weapons to a United Nations peacekeeping force in January. The rebels, once infamous for chopping off the limbs of civilians, transformed themselves into a political party and barely whimpered when they were trounced at the polls in May during general elections widely praised as free and fair.
Angola’s 27-year-long civil war came to an abrupt end in April, scant weeks after rebel leader Jonas Savimbi was killed in a shootout with government soldiers. The new leadership of the rebel Union for the Total Independence of Angola has shown no appetite for continuing the fight. Now the country faces a new battle: reducing the grinding poverty that persists despite its vast oil revenues.
The multi-pronged war in Congo, arguably the continent’s most complex and far-reaching conflict, seemed to be dragging on interminably early this year. But in July, the latest of numerous peace conferences resulted in a deal between the two main belligerents, the Rwandan and Congolese governments.
Observers remained skeptical that either side would keep their promises. But as the months passed, the foreign armies that had invaded Congo or rushed to the government’s aid withdrew across the borders, while President Joseph Kabila made moves toward ousting the Rwandan opposition militants long harboured by his country.
Also in July, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army rebels and the Sudanese government signed an agreement on two of the central issues in that country’s 19-year-long civil war.
Khartoum promised the people of southern Sudan freedom from Islamic law and the chance to vote in a referendum on independence. Another round of peace talks brought about a partial ceasefire, but the issue of sharing Sudan’s newfound oil wealth remains on the table for negotiations due to resume in the new year.
Western diplomats have invested much hope and money in a new round of peace talks for anarchic Somalia, where warlords and militia groups have battled back-and-forth for control of territory since the government collapsed in 1991.
Somalia’s main faction leaders signed a ceasefire agreement in the Kenyan town of Eldoret in November. The main obstacle confronting the mediators remains persuading the factions to share power in some form of a federation.
Tiny Burundi – long crippled like its neighbour Rwanda by power struggles between the majority ethnic Hutu and minority ethnic Tutsis – witnessed in November the first ceasefire agreement by a rebel group since civil war began in 1993. The Tutsi-dominated military’s willingness to loosen its stranglehold on power will be tested in the coming months. Soldiers from the Hutu rebel Forces for the Defence of Democracy are to be integrated into the army and the Tutsi leader Pierre Buyoya is to hand over the presidency to a Hutu politician.
It’s too early to tell whether the peace deals reached in 2002 will prove successful, says Francois Grignon, Africa analyst for the International Crisis Group think-tank.
”These things take time,” says Grignon.
African governments became more involved in trying to bring peace to the continent in 2002. South Africa mediated in the Burundi conflict and played a leading role in the Congo negotiations. The regional Inter-Governmental Authority of Development, the grouping of countries in East Africa and the Horn, took charge of the Sudanese and Somali peace talks.
Grignon calls this a positive development but no guarantee of success. ”Peace processes are not necessarily going to succeed just because African mediators have been involved or just because there
is a stronger regional involvement to solve them,” he says.
West African governments have failed to bring an end to the conflict that flared up in what was long the region’s most stable country, Ivory Coast.
A failed coup attempt in September led to a stand-off between rebels and the government of Laurent Gbagbo, effectively partitioning the country into northern and southern halves. The former colonial power France had to step in to keep the two sides apart, but not before hundreds died. – Sapa-DPA