Peace & Security Council Report

The September 2021 Peace & Security Council Report by the Institute for Security Studies examines critical stability challenges across Africa, focusing on the appointment of a high representative for the Horn of Africa, the diplomatic rift between Algeria and Morocco, the prevalence of enforced disappearances, security sector reform failures in South Sudan, and Sudan's decision to surrender Omar al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court.

• President Olusegun Obasanjo was appointed as high representative for the Horn of Africa on 26 August 2021 to 'promote peace, security, stability and political dialogue'. His appointment is viewed by some as a strategic move to address the conflict in Ethiopia without formally placing the country on the Peace and Security Council (PSC) agenda, which the PSC 'has never' done.
• Diplomatic and trade relations between Algeria and Morocco have collapsed, with Algeria announcing a break in relations on 24 August and banning Moroccan planes from its territory on 22 September. The rift is driven by Morocco's support for independence movements in Algeria's Kabylie region, the 'Pegasus scandal' involving Moroccan spying on Algeria, and Morocco's relations with Israel.
• Enforced disappearances are used as a tool of oppression in Africa to silence activists and opposition leaders, yet the African Union lacks a binding legal framework to address them. While the AU adopted resolutions in 2018 and 2020, they are 'still not binding', and only 18 African countries have ratified the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED).
• South Sudan's security sector reforms, launched in 2018 under the Revitalised Agreement for the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS), are failing due to a 'militarised political culture'. Key security mechanisms intended to oversee the unification of armed forces are not fully functional nearly three years later, and troops continue to desert cantonment camps due to food shortages and poor living conditions.
• Sudan's transitional government announced in August that it would hand over suspects charged by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes in Darfur (2003-2004), including former president Omar al-Bashir. This decision is attributed to a lack of domestic judicial capacity—specifically that Article 18 of the penal code 'has never been used in any prosecution'—the high cost of domestic trials, and a desire to improve Sudan's international standing.

APA

Woldemichael, S., Sirengo, E., Louw-Vaudran, L., Matungadura, C., Mahdi, M., & Maunganidze, O. A. (2021). Peace & Security Council Report. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/PSC-Report-139.pdf

Chicago

Woldemichael, Shewit, Elizabeth Sirengo, Liesl Louw-Vaudran, Chido Matungadura, Maram Mahdi, and Ottilia Anna Maunganidze. Peace & Security Council Report. Institute for Security Studies, 2021. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/PSC-Report-139.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{woldemichael2021peace, author = {Woldemichael, Shewit and Sirengo, Elizabeth and Louw-Vaudran, Liesl and Matungadura, Chido and Mahdi, Maram and Maunganidze, Ottilia Anna}, title = {{Peace \& Security Council Report}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2021}, month = sep, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/PSC-Report-139.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }