Peace & Security Council Report

The May 2023 Peace & Security Council Report by the Institute for Security Studies examines the African Union's (AU) responses to crises in Sudan and Chad, the slow adoption of structural vulnerability assessments, the complexities of the AU-EU partnership, and the challenges facing the 'Silencing the Guns' initiative.

• The report argues that current diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis in Sudan have been unsuccessful, and an AU-mandated intervention force is necessary to maintain ceasefires, protect civilians, and support a political transition. Such a force should ideally operate within the trilateral IGAD-AU-UN mechanism and draw troops from countries outside Sudan's immediate neighbors, such as Kenya and Burundi, to avoid competing regional interests.
• The African Union has been criticized for inconsistencies in its approach to Chad, specifically for not imposing sanctions for an unconstitutional seizure of power despite doing so for Mali and Guinea. This perceived tolerance, driven by security concerns in the Sahel and Central Africa, has resulted in the AU having limited control over Chad's transition and a lack of alignment between the AU Commission and the Peace and Security Council (PSC).
• Uptake of the AU's voluntary Country Structural Vulnerability and Resilience Assessment (CSVRA) and Country Structural Vulnerability Mitigation Strategy (CSVMS) has been slow, with only Ghana (2017), Côte d’Ivoire (2019), and Zambia (2020) participating. Barriers to adoption include a lack of awareness, redundancy with similar tools in regional economic communities like ECOWAS, and member state fears that assessments expose strategic threats.
• The AU-EU partnership is facing 'growing cracks' evidenced by the failure to issue a public communiqué after the May 2023 PSC-to-PSC meeting in Brussels due to a lack of consensus on the Ukraine crisis. Additionally, there is apprehension regarding the European Peace Facility (EPF), which allows the EU to fund peace operations directly, bypassing the AU and breaking the norm of channeling funds through the organization.
• The 'Silencing the Guns' initiative has been hindered by a 'political governance deficit', including the manipulation of constitutions and elections, and a lack of sustainable funding. A significant challenge is the proliferation of small arms, with approximately 40 million firearms held by civilians, of which only 10% were legally acquired.

APA

Mahdi, M., Soumahoro, M., Kinkoh, H., Atta-Asamoah, A., & Hoinathy, R. (2023). Peace & Security Council Report. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/psc-report-157.pdf

Chicago

Mahdi, Maram, Moussa Soumahoro, Hubert Kinkoh, Andrews Atta-Asamoah, and Remadji Hoinathy. Peace & Security Council Report. Institute for Security Studies, 2023. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/psc-report-157.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Mahdi |first1=Maram |last2=Soumahoro |first2=Moussa |last3=Kinkoh |first3=Hubert |last4=Atta-Asamoah |first4=Andrews |last5=Hoinathy |first5=Remadji |title=Peace & Security Council Report |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=May 2023 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/psc-report-157.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{mahdi2023peace, author = {Mahdi, Maram and Soumahoro, Moussa and Kinkoh, Hubert and Atta-Asamoah, Andrews and Hoinathy, Remadji}, title = {{Peace \& Security Council Report}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2023}, month = may, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/psc-report-157.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }