The brave spin that British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw put on African developments could not disguise the reality that his visit two weeks ago took place against the bleakest backdrop.
The United Nations is now faced with two of the most burning issues: Côte d’Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Senegal-based African Rally for the Defence of Human Rights (Raddho) reported last weekend that no fewer than 19 African countries showed signs of peace breaking down.
Raddho’s Peace Under Construction report is designed to alert the international community to the risk in the hope of getting urgent preventative action. In addition to the two cases before the UN Security Council, Raddho listed Angola, Burkina Faso, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Gabon, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Togo as countries “at risk”.
Interestingly, Straw listed three of these — Angola, Nigeria and Sierra Leone — as countries in Africa showing “positive developments”. The Security Council determined that the situation in Côte d’Ivoire threatens peace and security in West Africa and decided to establish a UN mission in that country.
The council voted unanimously to support the recommendation by Secretary General Kofi Annan to send a military liaison component — starting with 26 officers and rising to 50 as required.
They will advise Annan’s special representative in the country and guide efforts to implement the peace accord brokered by the French in January. This calls for a power-sharing transitional government working towards elections in two years’ time. The advisers will also support forces from France, the Ivorean government and the Economic Community of West African States.
These forces are engaged in disengagement, disarmament and demobilisation, and in building confidence and trust between the armed groups.
An eight-day mission to the region by ambassadors of all 15 Security Council member countries, due to have began this week, has been postponed.
The envoys were due to explore opportunities for progress towards peace and stability and to examine country-specific issues and developments. Their itinerary included Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, Guinea Bissau and Sierra Leone.
If the proponents of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development needed a reminder that they have their work cut out, it came in a UN Development Programme report this week.
The Human Development Report said Africa contained 34 of the 49 least-developed countries on the globe with 300-million people living below the poverty line. Of the 36 countries listed on the low human development index, no fewer than 29 are African.