With the objective of financing the peacekeeping operations in Africa by Africa countries, 50 Africa Union (AU) member states have contributed $89 million.
This is indicated by President Paul Kagame of Rwanda who has been serving the Africa Union as president for the last one year. “The relaunched Peace Fund now stands at $89 million, with 50 member states contributing,” President Paul Kagame said on Sunday addressing Africa leaders gathered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the 32nd Africa Union Summit.
“This demonstrates the force of our collective resolve ad ability. We will continue to work with the United Nations, towards a sustainable mechanism for funding African-led peace support operations,” he said.
For the past few years Africa Union Commission has been calling on member states to finance peacekeeping operations in the continent and assure sustainability the operations. That has resulted in the launching of Africa Union Peace Fund, which will enable member countries to contribute for the peacekeeping operations in the continent.
Currently most of the peacekeeping operations in Africa are being financed by the international community outside the continent.
At the moment the ongoing peacekeeping operations in Africa require over a billion dollar including the AU-led mission in Somalia (AMISOM), which needs around $900 million per year.
The major financiers of peacekeeping in Africa includes wealth nations such as the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and Italy, among others. Also Julius Nyerere Building dedicated for AU peace ad security department in the African Union compound built by the financial support from the Government of Germany
Reports suggest that show that such dependence on external funding has crippled the AU because it can’t independently decide when to deploy a peace support operation.