Addis Ababa, 1 September 2023: The Republic of Cameroon has taken over from Burundi as the Chair of the AU Peace and Security Council for the Month of September 2023. The eighth since 2004, Cameroon’s Chairship is coming within the context of growing concerns in the Continent on the spade of Unconstitutional Changes of Government, financial challenges in managing Peace Support Operations in Africa, difficult political transitions and increasing terrorist acts in African Coastal countries. It is also coming within the backdrop of the Commemoration of the Africa Amnesty Month, the International Peace Day, the 75th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the holding of the African Climate Summit in Nairobi and the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

In its Provisional Work Programme rolled out and adopted by Council on 25 August 2023, Cameroon is proposing seven substantive PSC Meetings at ministerial, ambassadorial and expert levels.

At the Ministerial level, there will be a Session on Financing AU Peace Support Operations at the Margin of the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly. At the ambassadorial level, there are five substantive Meetings. Two of them are country conflict and transition situations covering Somalia (ATMIS), Mali and Guinea. The other three are on thematic issues covering Maritime Security in the Gulf of Guinea, Civil-Military Relations, and Engagement with the UNHCR on the Post-Malabo Humanitarian Summit.

Finally, at the expert level, there will be an examination of the African Code of Conduct on Civil-Military Relations by the Military Staff Committee (MSC) and an examination of the 8th Informal Joint Seminar and the 17th Annual Joint Consultative Meeting between the PSC and the UNSC.

Other activities will include participation in a Field Mission of Children in Arms Conflict in DR Congo, the African Climate Summit in Nairobi and the launching of the African Amnesty Month in Mozambique.

According to Cameroon’s Permanent Representative to the AU and the Chair of the PSC, the focus of the country’s 8th Chairship of the PSC will be on Civil-Military Relations, which if addressed as a cross-cutting issue, will go a long way in managing and resolving many African Peace and Security issues in Peacekeeping, Unconstitutional Changes of Governments, protection of civilians in Humanitarian Crises, Post-Conflict, Reconstruction and Development, etc.

At the end of the Chairship, H.E. Amb. Churchill Ewumbue-Monono will brief the press on the outcomes of Cameroon’s Month of September as the Chair of the PSC.

-END-

---

For Media inquiries, please contact:

Ms. Lulit Kebede, Communication Officer | Political Affairs, Peace and Security Department | African Union Commission | Tel: +251 115 517 700 | E-mail: lulitk@africa-union.org | Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

COMMENTS