Pretoria – Analysts have hailed the decision by the African Union to adopt a resolution to create a rapid response force that will help Africa with a military capacity to respond swiftly to emergency situations.
But they have also cautioned that it is too early to make meaningful judgments.
A week after the AU summit in Addis Ababa adopted the decision to establish African Immediate Crisis Response Capacity (AICRC), widely seen as historic, analysts said it was too early to make any conclusion about the mechanism, tasked with bringing peace and stability on the continent.
AU Commission chairperson Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma said the decision to form AICRC, championed by South Africa, was informed by the overwhelming dependence of the Union on funds provided by partners, and which affects the implementation of African solutions to African problems.
Leaders point out for instance, that 100% of African Union Mission to Somalia is funded by partners. It represents an annual budget of $500 million. In the same vein, African leaders agreed that in the case of the armed rebellion in Mali, Africa could have moved faster and made the French intervention dispensable if it had the appropriate tools and mechanisms.
Lessening dependence on partners
As Africa celebrates the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (now the AU), leaders of the continent felt it unfortunate that after 50 years of independence, African security was still so dependent on foreign partners, said Dlamini Zuma.
So far, South Africa, Uganda and Ethiopia have pledged to implement the decision on the establishment of the capacity.
On a voluntary basis, member states of the AU will contribute troops and finance the capacity so as to act independently. Command and control will be ensured by the AU Peace and Security Council upon request of a member state for intervention.
David Zoumenou, a researcher and analyst at South Africa's Institute for Security Studies, said any military unit of the AU needs sufficient resources if it’s to carry out its mission effectively.
“I say if you give it power and resources, any structure can work. But how do we resolve the financial problem, because already the AU has the Peace and Security Council but we seem to lack the political will needed to get it functioning.
“I do not think we need new mechanisms if we cannot provide resources for the existing ones,” said Zoumenou.
AICRC is an interim tool, as the mooted African Standby force (ASF) is expected to be operational by 2015.
Mzoxolo Mpolase, an analyst at Political Analysis South Africa, said while the idea of establishing an armed rapid response mechanism was a noble one, critical questions needed to be asked around its funding.
“The idea is good, no doubt about it. But who will be funding it? The fact that the African Union is funded almost 100 percent by external parties is because African countries cannot fund it. We need to really think about how this will be funded because it will be taxing to those countries that contribute troops.
“It’s hardly ever the case when it comes to bilateral relations whereby I give you money and don’t expect something in return. Countries who give you aid will tell you how that aid is to be spent,” Mpolase said.
But for the AU to achieve self-reliance, said Mpolane, its members, which are African countries, should look for self-reliance themselves.
“The AU is a by-product of what is happening in the countries. If you have a case as you have in Malawi, where a country relies on foreign aid, it therefore makes sense that the AU will also be funded by aid because the very countries that it has are funded by aid.” - SAnews.gov.za
