Silencing the Guns: Will African summit results affect end of the Libyan crisis?

Indiana Khalid

The UN Security Council on February 7, 2019 unanimously adopted Resolution 2457, in which it welcomed the African Union’s determination to rid the continent of conflict and create conditions for growth and development under the “Silencing the Guns by 2020” initiative presented by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in accordance with the African Union roadmap to make the continent a conflict free zone by the same year.

The meetings of the 33rd African Union summit are being held in February this year, chaired by South Africa, amid grave challenges facing the continent, especially with the growing fears of terrorism in the Horn of Africa and Turkish interference in Libya in support of the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA).

African Union heads of state and government are seeking to enhance their participation in mediations in a number of armed conflicts that are tearing the continent apart, despite previous failures. At the forefront is the Libyan crisis.

Libya

Many thorny issues dominate the summit agenda, including counterterrorism. But the Libyan crisis is at the forefront of the summit’s work, especially with the participation of the leaders of Libya’s neighbors, namely Egyptian President Sisi and Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, as well as Tunisian Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Sabri Bachtobji on behalf of President Kais Saied, who was absent from the summit for an emergency health issue.

President Sisi stressed in his speech during the African Peace and Security Council session on Saturday, February 8, that the known foreign interventions in Libyan affairs have brought threats that do not stop at Libya’s borders, underscoring that the international consensus from the Berlin conference on Libya has been violated.

Sisi also warned of the dangerous regional repercussions of terrorists being transported from Syria to Libya, stressing that the interconnection between the situations in Libya and the African Sahel region necessitates working on a comprehensive approach and a joint effort to support the national efforts of the five Sahel (G5) countries to address the complex challenges they face in that vital region of the continent.

Meanwhile, Mohamed Taher Siala, the GNA’s foreign affairs minister, told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that the Peace and Security Council meeting on Saturday renews hopes that the African Union will play a complementary role to the United Nations and that the ceasefire will be carried out according to the results of the Berlin and Brazzaville summits. “We are counting on the Berlin route to find its way to implementation, and we are counting on the pressure of the international community, whether the African Union or other regional organizations.”

Silencing the Guns

“Silencing the Guns” is the most prominent title of the summit, as the African Union wishes to be more effective in resolving future African conflicts and wants to find appropriate solutions to them.

France 24 believes that this summit opens on a bitter note, namely the failure of the African Union to implement the pledge it made at the Addis Ababa summit in 2013 to end wars in Africa by 2020.

Recommendations

Dr. Hani Raslan, head of the Sudan and Nile Basin Studies Unit at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, expected the summit to end with a condemnation of foreign interventions in Libya, especially Turkish, along with stressing the importance of peace and a ceasefire.

Raslan added in a statement to the Reference that Turkey’s interference in Libya threatens the neighboring countries, as Ankara worked to transfer terrorists from Syria to Libya, which brought about terrorist organizations and elements in the African Sahel region. Turkey must stop its interference in Libya, because what is happening in Libya does not constitute the slightest threat to Turkey and Ankara’s presence is therefore not justified.