Briefing ambassadors on Africa Day, Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo presented the latest UN report on securing predictable, sustainable and flexible resources for AU-led peace support operations mandated by the Council.

The changing nature of conflict in Africa has forced the partners to adapt their operations in response to new and evolving challenges.

Secure funding stream

“The case for adequately financing AU-led peace support operations is beyond solid. We are therefore hopeful that the Security Council will agree to provide its backing, including allowing access to UN assessed contributions,” she said.

The report lists the joint mission model and support packages delivered by the UN as the two most practical financing options, which would be authorized on a case-by-case basis.

It also outlines a standardized consultative planning and mandating process, through which the UN, the AU and subregional configurations can assess the required response to an emerging crisis.

“This process would reassure the Council that a given situation has been systematically reviewed by all the relevant entities. It would thus help the Council decide whether assessed contributions can be mandated,” she said.

Rising insecurity, funding shortfalls

Ms. DiCarlo gave an overview of AU and UN cooperation, noting that it has grown significantly since the signing of a 2017 joint framework on enhanced partnership in peace and security.

She said over the past 20 years, the AU has shown readiness to speedily deploy peace support operations in response to conflicts, including in Burundi, the Central African Republic, Comoros, Mali, Somalia and Sudan.

These missions faced recurrent problems such as funding shortfalls, and although support provided by the UN and partners has been useful, it has also been unpredictable.

“As we look at different parts of the continent, it is obvious that the need to put AU peace operations on a solid footing is increasingly pressing,” she said, referring to situations in places such as the Sahel, Somalia, Mozambique, and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“In Africa and elsewhere, rising insecurity is characterized by an increasing use of asymmetric tactics and sophistication of armed extremist groups and expanding influence of transnational organized crime,” she continued.  “These connected phenomena require commensurate global approaches and responses.”

Progress on compliance

The funding of AU-led operations has been a longstanding issue in the Security Council, particularly over establishing a mechanism to allow partial financing through UN assessed contributions.  

Ms. DiCarlo reported that in line with two Council resolutions, the AU has made significant progress to address the financial challenge of its peace operations, and on ensuring compliance with international human rights and humanitarian law, as well as UN conduct and discipline standards.

Noting that AU peace operations should be considered as part of the range of responses to crises in Africa, alongside established UN mechanisms, she appealed for the Council’s support.

“As the Secretary-General has stated, concrete action on this longstanding issue will address a critical gap in the international peace and security architecture and bolster the efforts of the African Union to tackle peace and security challenges on the continent.”

Stand with Africa: Guterres

Meanwhile, UN chief António Guterres noted that cooperation and solidarity to advance the continent’s future is more needed than ever.

“I look forward to African governments continuing to seize the opportunities presented by the continent’s natural, human, and entrepreneurial richness, by working to increase private investment and raise resources at home,” he said in his message for Africa Day.

The annual commemoration May celebrates the founding of the Organization of African Union, the African Union precursor, on 25 May 1963.

The Secretary-General urged the international community to stand with Africa as multiple rises – from COVID-19 to climate and conflict – continue to cause great suffering there.

He further stated that African countries are underrepresented in global governance institutions, such as the UN Security Council, and denied the debt relief and concessional funding they need.

“Africa deserves peace, justice and international solidarity,” he said.  “With international cooperation and solidarity, this can be Africa’s century.” 

Fulgence Kayishema is alleged to have orchestrated the killing of approximately 2,000 Tutsi refugees at Nyange Catholic Church during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) said in a statement.

He was arrested in South Africa on Wednesday in a joint operation between the IRMCT Office of the Prosecutor and the authorities.

Finally facing justice

Kayishema has been at large since 2001 and was among four remaining fugitives from the genocide, during which an estimated one million people were killed, and roughly 150,000 to 250,000 women raped, over a period of some 100 days.

IRMCT Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz said his arrest ensures the long-standing fugitive will finally face justice for his alleged crimes.

“Genocide is the most serious crime known to humankind. The international community has committed to ensure that its perpetrators will be prosecuted and punished. This arrest is a tangible demonstration that this commitment does not fade and that justice will be done, no matter how long it takes,” he added.

International partners for justice

Mr. Brammertz said the thorough investigation that led to the arrest was made possible through the support and cooperation of South Africa and the Operational Task Team established by President Cyril Ramaphosa to assist the ICMRT Fugitive Tracking Team.

They also received “vital support” from similar Task Forces in other African countries, notably Eswatini and Mozambique.

“Rwandan authorities under the leadership of Prosecutor General Aimable Havugiyaremye continued to be our strongest partners and provided essential assistance,” he said.

The Chief Prosecutor also cited support from other countries, including the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, saying “Kayishema’s arrest demonstrates yet again that justice can be secured, no matter the challenges, through direct cooperation between international and national law enforcement agencies.”

The IRMCT performs essential functions previously carried out by the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which closed in December 2015, and another for the former Yugoslavia, which concluded two years later.

Kayishema was indicted by the Rwanda tribunal in 2001.

He was charged with genocide, complicity in genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, and crimes against humanity for killings and other crimes committed in Kivumu Commune, Kibuye Prefecture, during the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

According to the indictment, he and other co-perpetrators murdered more than 2,000 refugees – men, women, elderly persons, and children – at the Nyange Church in Kivumu commune, on 15 April 1994.

He “directly participated in the planning an execution” of the massacre, working methodically over two days following, to transfer the corpses to mass graves.

‘Further step forward’

The arrest marks “a further step forward” in the effort to account for all those fugitives still at large who have been indicted by the ICTR.

Since 2020, the OTP Fugitive Tracking Team has accounted for five of the fugitives at large, including another of the architects of the genocide which was orchestrated by the extremist Hutu regime at the time, Félicien Kabuga, as well as Augustin Bizimana, Protais Mpiranya, and Phéneas Munyarugarama. There are now only three outstanding fugitives.

With more than 42 million children displaced worldwide and increasing exposure to multiple forms of violence, the Office of the Special Representative on Violence against Children co-launched a new brief, Protecting the Rights of Children on the Move in Times of Crisis, which draws on past lessons, and outlines key principles to boost child protection.

In this unprecedented joint call, the Special Representative Dr. Najat Maalla M’jid, was joined by the head of the UN human rights office (OHCHR), refugee agency UNHCR, the UN Children’s Fund UNICEF, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and the UN migration agency (IOM) – in close partnership with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Special Representative and Coordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings – who stressed that “protection of all children, independently of their status, is more necessary than ever.”  

This includes investing in strong rights-based national protection systems that include displaced children, rather than excluding them or creating separate services for them, says the brief, which has proven to be more sustainable and effective in the long-term.

Concrete actions

As millions of children are displaced, often for many years, by crises such as armed conflicts, political instability, climate change – and it’s associated fallout for health and economic survival – the best interests of the child must be the primary consideration, the brief states.

Full protection requires translating good intentions into concrete and sustained actions, ensuring non-discriminatory access to national services.

This includes civil documentation such as birth registration, social welfare, justice, health, education, and social protection – for all children, without distinction or exclusion based on their migration status.

Penelope Cruz – unity call

Spanish film star and campaigner, Penelope Cruz joined the call, emphasizing that we all have a role to play in protecting children from violence: “Children must be protected everywhere and in all circumstances. Keeping all children safe from harm and promoting their wellbeing with particular attention to those is crisis situations is – and must be – everybody’s business.

“Let’s be united in creating a world free from violence against children”, she declared.