Peace and Security Council Report No 121

This report from the Institute for Security Studies analyzes the outcomes of the 33rd African Union (AU) Summit in February 2020, focusing on the election of new Peace and Security Council (PSC) members, the AU's role in the Libyan conflict, the terrorist insurgency in Mozambique, and the implementation of the 'Silencing the Guns' theme.

• The election of 10 new members to the Peace and Security Council (PSC) in April 2020—including Benin, Chad, Cameroon, Egypt, Mozambique, Djibouti, and Ethiopia—is expected to shift the council's focus toward countering terrorism and violent extremism. This is because many of these incoming states, along with continuing members Nigeria and Kenya, are deeply involved in anti-terror operations.
• The AU faces significant challenges in brokering peace in Libya due to a lack of a common African position, overlapping mandates among various AU entities (such as the High-Level Ad-hoc Committee and the newly created contact group), and perceptions that some AU officials and member states are not neutral stakeholders.
• Despite an escalating terrorist threat in Mozambique's Cabo Delgado province—which has displaced at least 100,000 people and killed up to 400 since the insurgency began—the situation is unlikely to reach the official PSC agenda soon. This is attributed to the tendency of PSC members to avoid tabling their own internal situations and the belief by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) that it should lead responses in Southern Africa.
• The AU's 2019 theme on refugees and forced displacement achieved some success in strengthening normative frameworks and enhancing awareness, but failed to provide significant durable solutions for the 25.2 million displaced people in Africa. The report argues that the 2020 theme, 'Silencing the Guns,' is intrinsically linked to the previous theme because conflict is the primary driver of displacement.
• The selection of Wamkele Mene as the first secretary-general of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) followed a rare and fierce contest between South Africa and Nigeria. The report notes that while the AfCFTA could boost industrialization, there are concerns regarding 'rules of origin' to prevent cheap global imports from masquerading as African products.
• The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) is being positioned as a tool for structural conflict prevention to address the root causes of violence, such as poor governance and social disparities. The report suggests that future conflicts in Africa are likely to be governance-related, involving disputes over political succession and the quality of elections.

APA

Institute for Security Studies (n.d.). Peace and Security Council Report No 121. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/pscreport121.pdf

Chicago

Institute for Security Studies. Peace and Security Council Report No 121. n.d. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/pscreport121.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Institute for Security Studies |title=Peace and Security Council Report No 121 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/pscreport121.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{instituteforsecuritystudiesndpeace, author = {{Institute for Security Studies}}, title = {{Peace and Security Council Report No 121}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/pscreport121.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }