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The African Union (AU) celebrated 62 years of existence on May 25, 2025, under the theme “Justice for Africans and People of African Descent through Reparations”.
Yet, Africa Day passed largely unnoticed across the continent, not only because the theme of reparations for slavery, colonialism, and apartheid has long rung hollow, but also due to the African Union’s persistent failure to address the continent’s pressing contemporary challenges.
Unlike the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), which has a strong reparations commission, the AU does not have a structured reparations commission with a clear legal or financial roadmap.
This is because most African leaders remain cautious about straining relations with former colonial powers – France, the UK, Belgium, Germany, Spain, and Portugal – despite a history marked by 350 years of the slave trade and more than six decades of colonization.
The central concern remains whether the AU – established in 2002 as the successor to the defunct Organisation of African Unity (OAU), founded in May 1963 – has effectively addressed the continent’s needs, particularly in areas such as intra-African trade, security, and conflict resolution.
The mantra of “African Solutions for African Problems” sounds hollow as the AU continues to rely on outside support to finance its core functions and programmes, especially in conflict resolution and peacekeeping.
While the slogan, “The Africa We Want” contained in the AU Agenda 2063 implies that the continental body is gearing towards taking full control of its affairs, its fruits are yet to manifest 10 years since it was adopted in 2015.
The question is, just how efficient are the AU organs? Many of the resolutions, treaties, and initiatives suffer from slow adoption and inconsistent implementation, given that the continental body does not have the mechanisms to compel sovereign countries to comply.
Still, the AU continues to play a significant role in promoting the African perspective in international discussions and tackling barriers to continental peace and security, even though political and budgetary limitations have reduced the organization’s capacity to fulfil its obligations to mediation and peacekeeping.
The “Africa We Want” was adopted as a blueprint for the AU’s long-term development and integration strategy for the socio-economic transformation of the continent over 50 years (2013–2063).
The core objectives of Agenda 2063 include accelerating African integration through the free movement of people, goods, and services, strengthening regional economic communities, and building resilient institutions for peacekeeping and conflict resolution.
Major flagship projects of Agenda 2063 include the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), the African Passport and Free Movement of People, Silencing the Guns by 2030, and the High-Speed Rail Network.
Despite various misdirected priorities, the launch of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in 2021 stands as a major achievement for the African Union, aimed at boosting intra-African trade and fostering economic integration through the creation of a single continental market for goods and services. As of now, 49 out of 55 African countries have ratified the agreement, making them eligible to engage in AfCFTA trade activities.
Currently, intra-African trade stands at only 15 per cent, amounting to US$1.5 trillion in value, compared to 69 per cent intra-European trade. Africa’s trade with Europe stands at 33 per cent in 2025. Experts say AfCFTA is expected to boost intra-African trade to 45 per cent by 2045.
AfCFTA makes Africa the largest free-trade area by number of countries. The agreement aims to eliminate tariffs on 90 per cent of goods traded between African countries, but success depends on having the financial infrastructure to support increased trade flows.
According to Prof Kevin Chika Urama, Chief Economist at the African Development Bank Group, Africa must now face the challenge and look inwards to mobilizing the resources needed to finance its development in the years ahead.
While the AfCFTA holds significant promise, its implementation faces numerous challenges, including non-tariff barriers, fragmented policies and regulations, weak industrial capacity, and overlapping memberships and trade rules among multiple Regional Economic Communities (RECs). Additionally, poor transport infrastructure – such as roads, railways, and ports – makes cross-border trade costly and slow, while inadequate electricity supply hampers industrialization. These issues are further compounded by a lack of political will and instability across parts of the continent.
Africa Rising, a pan-African movement of people and organizations working for Unity, Justice, Peace and Dignity, has taken the campaign to mobilize the free movement of persons across the continent through the slogan “Borderless Africa”.
Yet, not all the 55 member states have adopted the protocol on the free movement of persons seriously. Currently, only five countries – Seychelles, Benin, Ghana, Rwanda and The Gambia – offer visa-free access to all African countries. About 28 per cent of Africans do not need a visa to travel to other African countries on special arrangements.
Experts warn that Africa could be staring at a time bomb if it cannot harness its potential to create employment for the youth. With the fastest-growing population expected to reach 2.5 billion by 2050, Africa’s youth unemployment, currently standing at 30 per cent, yet the youth – under 25 – comprise 840 million out of the 1.4 billion.
One of the major challenges facing the AU is funding constraints. Many member states fail to pay their annual contributions in time or accumulate arrears, resulting in a situation where the AU is overly dependent on donors.
Member states contribute only 40 per cent towards AU programmes, while 60 per cent of the budget, especially for peacekeeping, comes from external partners like the European Union (EU), China, the United States and the United Nations. This raises concerns about sovereignty and external influence on the AU agenda.
What each country contributes depends on its GDP and population size. The four leading contributors are South Africa (which caters for 14 per cent of the total 40 per cent of the annual budget), Nigeria (13 per cent), Egypt (10 per cent), and Algeria (8 per cent).
To reduce donor dependency, in 2016 the AU adopted a 0.2 per cent levy on imports from outside Africa that would raise US$1.2 billion annually for operations, the Peace Fund and development programmes.
This comes at a time when the unity of Africa is facing challenges as the global governance system becomes increasingly being weakened and distorted by the pressures of unilateralism and protectionism.
The continent is becoming vulnerable to the ongoing zero-sum game among superpowers – the US, China and Russia – that are engaged in a new scramble for Africa that is likely to fragment the AU.
David John Bwakali, coordinator and lead writer of Africa Eco Voices, says that most other African states lack true sovereignty since they were never intended to become sovereign.
“These are relics from a colonial experiment that didn’t aim to create powerful, independent countries. Rather, these states were designed to be perpetually divided and dependent. How can we have millions of people displaced in the Sahel, Sudan, DRC, South Sudan, and others while the AU remains impotent?” he asked.
The African Union is frequently criticized for its inability to prevent conflicts before they erupt, often responding only with statements and sanctions after the fact. Since the outbreak of war in Sudan in April 2023, the AU has remained largely a bystander, while external actors such as Saudi Arabia, the United States, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates have taken the lead, favouring bilateral initiatives over collective AU mechanisms.
Besides the war in Sudan that threatens to spill over to South Sudan and Chad, there are conflicts in Ethiopia’s Amhara and Oromo regions, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and in Cameroon where an often-overlooked conflict in the Anglophone regions that has gone on for eight years.
The Central African Republic remains beset by inter-communal violence, clashes over resources and instability at the helm. Libya remains divided, with no real prospects for elections.
In southern Africa, Mozambique is still unstable as a result of the unrest that followed the October election, which the opposition alleged was rigged, as well as the ongoing Islamist insurgency in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.
One of the main pillars of the AU policy to resolve crises around the continent is the African Standby Force (ASF). Yet, the ASF has not been used in any mission despite more than 20 years of development, indicating serious issues with its operational and institutional preparedness.
The ASF’s structure relies on regional brigades such as the Eastern Africa Standby Force (EASF), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Virtually all the AU-led peace support operations (PSOs) rely on the UN and donor funding, without which they are paralysed. Not only are PSOs too expensive for African nations and regional bodies, traditional partners are also hesitant to support an instrument that has trouble proving its effectiveness.
Peace missions like the African Union Support and Stabilisation Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) are facing severe funding challenges, as major donors such as the European Union redirect resources towards the war in Ukraine. Additionally, the United States plans to significantly cut its contributions to the United Nations, including a complete withdrawal of funding for peacekeeping operations.
Abraham Ename Minko, a senior researcher and policy analyst in peace, security, and conflict resolution, says that the AU’s insistence on prioritizing political solutions, such as its Roadmap for Sudan, rings hollow without the financial leverage to attract compliance
“Ultimately, the funding crisis demands a paradigm shift in AU peacekeeping. The ASF’s traditional model, designed for rapid military deployments, is ill-suited to fiscal austerity. Instead, the AU must embrace modular approaches: combining unarmed observers with targeted sanctions,” he said.
Yet, the AU, while marking its 50th anniversary in 2013, came up with the slogan of “Silencing the Guns” by 2020, with the leaders resolving not to pass the burden of conflict to future generations.
The deadline has been extended to 2030 due to the persistent and increased conflicts, a reflection of the numerous challenges in achieving lasting peace and security across the continent.
