Overcoming internal divisions over Western Sahara is set to be a challenge for the PSC in the year ahead.
To be effective, the way in which crises get onto the PSC’s agenda needs to change.
This latest Western Sahara decision is crucial for the AU and the PSC because the AU has taken a formal decision to limit the PSC’s involvement in a crisis in Africa.
This month the PSC will hold a meeting on the preparations for elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
A retrospective of the outgoing PSC shows that from April 2016 to March 2018, 36% of the meetings were about ongoing crisis and conflict situations.
An analysis of the work of the PSC in 2017 shows more meetings were devoted to thematic issues than to crisis situations.
Ten new members of the Peace and Security Council will be elected at the 30th AU summit.
At the 29th AU summit, leaders decided, among other measures, that September would be ‘Amnesty Month’ for those possessing illegal weapons.
In March 2017 the PSC reviewed the activities of the Panel of the Wise and decided to speed up the establishment of the Mediation Support Unit.
Morocco decided not to attend the first PSC meeting on Western Sahara since the kingdom rejoined the AU.
This month the PSC is looking into the xenophobic violence in South Africa and will undertake a field mission to Somalia.
Officials at the AU are calling for greater African solidarity - but unity should begin at home.
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