By Coletta Wanjohi

The African Union, Africa’s continental body, says it is forming a “facility” that will assist countries that have been suspended from the bloc to have a smooth transition to democratic rule.

The AU Peace and Security Council, a 15 -member security body, held its summit at the annual continental meeting in Ethiopia that ended on Sunday.

“We will be working with many actors including the UN Development Programme in the launch of what we call the “Africa facility” to support peaceful transitions in Africa,” says African Union Commissioner for Peace and Security, Bankole Adeoye.

So far six African countries remain suspended from the African Union - Gabon, Niger, Guinea, Sudan, Burkina Faso and Mali. They are all under military rule.

The AU constitutive act only supports civilian rule in its member states.

Come back to AU

“This facility promotes the engagement on how suspended members can have seamless, smooth effective and inclusive political transition. So we are working with them in terms of their political transition agenda so that they can come back to the AU on the condition that they respect constitutional order and hold free fair and transparent elections,” Adeoye adds.

Sanctions are provided for by the acts that govern the continental bloc, although experts have questioned their effectiveness.

“But times have changed and juntas have less reason to fear the organization’s opprobrium,” says an analysis by Crisis Group.

International Crisis Group is an independent organization working to prevent wars and shape policies that will build a more peaceful world.

“ ... a world of heightened geopolitical competition is making it easier for them to play different foreign actors off one another to their own political benefit,” it has added.

'Unfair treatment'

West African countries - Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso have made official their decision to immediately pull out of West Africa regional bloc, ECOWAS, which is an implementing body of the AU. They have partly sighted “unfair treatment”.

But the African Union seems still bent on having sanctions as “numbers one” priority in addressing unconstitutional changes of government.

“The AU is doing nothing out of its books," argues Adeoye. ” It is necessary to realise that, yes, the perpetrators of military coups may sight various reasons for us in the AU to flout the values in the normative frameworks , but sanctions will be placed in terms of suspension from the AU.”

The conflict in Sudan made it to the issue discussed by the AU peace and Security Council at presidential level with it being referred to as “AU’s top most priority in 2024 “.

High level panel for Sudan

The fighting between the Sudan armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces since April 2023 has plunged the country into what the UN has described as “emergency crisis”.

“Ten months since the conflict erupted, half of Sudan’s population – some 25 million people – needs humanitarian assistance and protection. More than 1.5 million people have fled across Sudan’s borders to the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan,” the UN Refugee Agency , UNHCR, has said in its latest update.

Mediation efforts have hit a snag as the eastern Africa country, suspended from the African Union, decided in January 2024 to suspend its membership from the regional bloc Intergovernmental Authority for development IGAD.

IGAD was tasked by the African Union to lead mediation efforts between the warring factions.

The African Union Summit 2024 has endorsed a high level panel for Sudan. The panel will comprise of Dr, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the AU High Representative for Silencing the Guns, and also includes Dr Specioza Wandira-Kazibwe, former Vice President of the Republic of Uganda and Ambassador Fransisco Madeira, former Special Representative of the Chairperson to Somalia and former Head of ATMIS.

Political dialogue

“We have people in the region who know the region who know Sudan who can contribute to the discourse and I can assure you that that panel is now ready to roll out its activities from this summit ensuring that all stakeholders ... in Sudan contribute to the political dialogue,” AU commissioner Adeoye has added .

The AU's leadership hopes that the political dialogue in Sudan will help mobilise to bring all stakeholders to the table and finally stop the war in Sudan.

The bloc hopes that this year it will support the six countries under military rule to have clear path towards holding elections so that power can be transferred to civilians and they can be readmitted to participating in the activities of the African union .

Read more: AU Summit: Why it needs to walk the talk instead of the tightrope

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