The African Unions Security Architecture: Operational Mandate and Challenges for Actualisation of the Responsibility to Protect

The objectives of this study were to examine the African Union security architecture within the purview of its operational mandate and challenges for the actualisation of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in Africa. The scope of this study was also based on the AU institutional mechanisms in resolving African conflicts since its inception, in 2002. This study further examines the rationales behind the transformation of the OAU into the AU, and how the AU has been responsive to the various internecine conflicts on the continent of Africa since the entrenchment of the Principle of the Responsibility to Protect by the United Nations Security in its Charter, in 2005. It also investigates the power of the Peace and Security Council of the AU to intervene militarily in African conflicts under Article 4(h) of the AU. The main method of data collection for this paper has been through the secondary data. This paper draws on the AU-led peacekeeping missions in Burundi (2008) and Darfur (2004), as well as the political impasse in Sudan. The secondary data include information derived from journal articles, books, the African Union and the United Nations sources. The findings of this study reveal that, since the creation of the AU, the body has remained an effective continental body, in resolving African deadly conflicts, although with some challenges, including the AU financial constraints, the small size of the AU force and its inability to enforce binding decisions on warring parties, as well as the power politics between Nigeria and South Africa in reaching a common ground on the AU strategic goals.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Not applicable

The datasets used in this study are openly available at [repository link] and the source code is available on GitHub at [GitHub link].