Peace & Security Council Report

The May 2025 Peace & Security Council Report examines escalating tensions between Algeria and Mali, the institutional challenges of AU-ECOWAS collaboration, the rise of 'lawfare' to undermine democracy in Africa, and the role of illicit economies in fueling Sahelian extremism.

• Diplomatic relations between Algeria and Mali have deteriorated sharply since April 2025, triggered by the Algerian army downing a Malian drone near the Tinzaouaten border. This dispute has regional implications, with the Alliance of Sahel States (AES)—comprising Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger—showing solidarity with Mali, leading to the withdrawal of ambassadors to Algiers and Mali and Niger's exit from the Comité d’État-Major Opérationnel Conjoint (CEMOC).
• The African Union (AU) faces a leadership void in the Sahel following the withdrawal of AES countries from ECOWAS and the collapse of the G5 Sahel. The report suggests the AU can reassert its influence by revitalising the Nouakchott Process, appointing a new representative to Bamako, and placing senior political officers in Ouagadougou and Niamey to maintain dialogue with de facto authorities.
• Collaboration between the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) and the ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council (MSC) is hindered by a lack of shared understanding regarding 'subsidiarity'. ECOWAS views subsidiarity as granting regional bodies full discretionary authority, while the AU believes regional bodies should remain accountable to the continental body. This divergence has led to disjointed responses to crises, such as the 2023 coup in Niger.
• The phenomenon of 'lawfare'—the use of legal tools to entrench power and sideline opposition—is increasing in Africa, specifically in Tanzania, Zambia, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Zimbabwe, and Togo. This manifests through the manipulation of ambiguous legal provisions, judicial reshuffles, and constitutional reviews to bypass term limits or disqualify opposition parties, such as the disqualification of Chadema in Tanzania ahead of the October 2025 elections.
• Illicit economies, particularly unlawful gold mining and arms trafficking, sustain violent extremism in the Sahel. The Sahel accounts for 51% of global terrorism-related deaths as of the 2025 Global Terrorism Index. Groups like Jama'at Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) use 'strategic governance' by permitting mining in restricted reserves to gain local support and funding, while approximately 12 million illicit arms circulate in West Africa.
• Professor Kwesi Aning warns that the AU and ECOWAS risk becoming obsolete due to 'bureaucratic inertia' and a failure to engage Africa's youth. He notes that ECOWAS has become more of a 'club of presidents' than a community of people, failing to address the socioeconomic drivers—such as exploitative natural resource extraction by foreign companies—that contributed to coups in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, and Niger.

APA

Kone, F. R., Simakoloyi, Z., Soumahoro, M., Ani, N. C., & Atta-Asamoah, A. (2025). Peace & Security Council Report. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/pages/1750228082668-psc-report-179.pdf

Chicago

Kone, Fahiraman Rodrigue, Zenge Simakoloyi, Moussa Soumahoro, Ndubuisi Christian Ani, and Andrews Atta-Asamoah. Peace & Security Council Report. Institute for Security Studies, 2025. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/pages/1750228082668-psc-report-179.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Kone |first1=Fahiraman Rodrigue |last2=Simakoloyi |first2=Zenge |last3=Soumahoro |first3=Moussa |last4=Ani |first4=Ndubuisi Christian |last5=Atta-Asamoah |first5=Andrews |title=Peace & Security Council Report |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=May 2025 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/pages/1750228082668-psc-report-179.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{kone2025peace, author = {Kone, Fahiraman Rodrigue and Simakoloyi, Zenge and Soumahoro, Moussa and Ani, Ndubuisi Christian and Atta-Asamoah, Andrews}, title = {{Peace \& Security Council Report}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2025}, month = may, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/pages/1750228082668-psc-report-179.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }