January 23, 2017
In his capacity as Chairperson of the African Union Peace and Security Council for the month of January, 2017, His Excellency Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma, will present the AU Master Roadmap on Practical Steps to Silence the Guns in Africa by the Year 2020 and the Report of the Peace and Security Council on its Activities and the State of Peace and Security in Africa to the AU Assembly of Heads of State on 30th January, 2017 in Addis Ababa.
On Monday 16th January, 2017, Member States of the AU Peace and Security Council under the Chairmanship of Sierra Leone, considered and adopted the Master Roadmap together with a Draft Assembly Decision, which will be presented to the 54 Heads of State during the January, 2017 African Union Summit by President Koroma.
The Council also discussed the Consideration of the Draft Report of the Peace and Security Council on its Activities and the State of Peace and Security in Africa.
Conflicts and crisis situations were discussed with particular reference to the political situation in the Islamic Republic of The Gambia; South Sudan; Somalia; the Democratic Republic of Congo; The State of Libya; Mali and the Sahel, The Sudan and Darfur, Burundi, Guinea Bissau, among others.
It could be recalled that during the OAU/AU 50th Anniversary Solemn Declaration adopted in Addis Ababa on 25th May, 2013, the African Union Heads of State and Government pledged to end all conflicts in Africa by the year 2020. This continental aspiration is also incorporated in the AU Agenda 2063 and it forms the bedrock of the work of the African Union Peace and Security Council.
It was on the basis of the above Solemn Declaration and in order to actualize the aspirations of the African Heads of State and Government that the Peace and Security Council in collaboration with AU sister organs developed a Master Roadmap together with a monitoring and evaluation mechanism which will serve as a blue print designed to rid the continent of conflicts and other crises.