The International Forum for Peace and Security in Africa which was held at the Abdou Diouf International Conference Centre, Dakar, Senegal explored ways to get Africa out of the grip of wars and COVID-19.
The two-day event had prominent African leaders, diplomats, development experts, civilians, military experts, journalists, and other delegates around the world in attendance.
The event was tagged: Challenges of Africa’s stability and emergence in a post-COVID world’.
The forum focused on peace and security and buttressed the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on peace and security and post-COVID recovery.
Among the participants are Presidents Macky Sall (Senegalese), Cyril Ramaphosa (South Africa), Mohamed Bazoum (Nigerien), and Umaro Sissoco Embalo (Guinea Bissau).
Also present were the President of the European Council, Mr. Charles Michel, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Mr. Moussa Faki Mahamat, and the Minister of the Armed Forces of the French Republic, Florence Parley.
Sall said Africa must be resilient to withstand the adverse effects of a dual health and economic crisis, environmental change, the intensification of terrorist attacks, and the resurgence of coups d’état.
He pointed out that since 2014, the Dakar Forum has been held to diagnose the situation in Africa to contribute to the search for solutions to the ills affecting it.
“This is why African leaders, senior officials, civilian and military experts are participating in this forum today, as safeguarding the continent’s peace and security is our mutual primary responsibility.
“Security has no price. But it does have a cost. Faced with the rise of the terrorist threat, we need greater budgetary flexibility to enable our countries to provide themselves with the means to ensure a minimum of national defense, with well-trained and well-equipped armies.
“We must also question the doctrine of peace operations in Africa. There are seven of them on the continent today: six deployed by the United Nations and one by the African Union in Somalia (AMISOM), which alone has more than 21,000 troops; the seven operations total more than 75,000 soldiers,” he said.
