AFRICAN UNION HAS FAILED AFRICA.

Published by the Standard, 7th November 2025 page 13

The African Union is like a club of buddies whose purpose is to protect the interests of its peers regardless of how cheeky and wayward they are. The current state of affairs in Africa behooves the question as to whether the AU serves the interests of the African citizens or to protect the status quo of the African leaders. Gross human rights violations, massacre and electoral theft is never called out but congratulatory messages are unleashed when despots hold on to power and plunder the economies of their countries.

Article three of the Constitutive Act of the African Union states that two of its objectives is to promote democratic principles and institutions, popular participation and good governance and to promote and; protect human and peoples’ rights in accordance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and other relevant human rights instruments.

In article four, the Constitutive Act of the African Union further states that it would function on the principles of respect for the sanctity of human life, condemnation and rejection of impunity and political assassination, acts of terrorism and subversive activities and condemnation and rejection of unconstitutional changes of governments.

If the four clauses in articles three and four are to apply, then the leadership and the entire membership of the African Union has critically failed in the sense that the human and peoples’ rights have been grossly violated in all its facets.

Since 2020, Africa has seen countless episodes of untold suffering for its subjects ranging from macabre state sanctioned killings, ethnic and racial cleansing and enforces disappearances. The violation of the right to life must be a top priority for the African Union and all measures must be in place to ensure that all those member states found culpable be sanctioned. The Republic of the Sudan and the Republic of South Sudan are currently carrying out mass killings and wiping out sections. Based on a careful analysis of the law and available facts, in December 2023, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken determined that members of the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces committed war crimes in the country. The Secretary also determined that members of the Rapid Support Forces and allied militias committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.

In the conflict, militia and state agencies continue to commit genocide. For instance, the Rapid Support Forces and allied militias systematically murdered men and boys on an ethnic basis, and deliberately targeted women and girls from certain ethnic groups for rape and other forms of sexual violence. Those same militias targeted fleeing civilians, murdering innocent individuals escaping conflict, and prevented remaining civilians from accessing lifesaving supplies.

In Tanzania, Kenya, Cameroon and Uganda have suppressed any civic actions by use of lethal force often killing demonstrators acting under the same laws, which allow demonstrations, and picketing especially during electoral and other reform related actions. These killings have left thousands dead and others missing to date.

While the African Union brags of operating on the principle of protecting the sanctity of human life, condemnation and rejection of impunity and political assassination, acts of terrorism and subversive activities and condemnation and rejection of unconstitutional changes of governments, the opposite is true. For instance, from the year 2022 to date, , Kenya has responded to demonstrations with the worst form of point blank killings, enforced disappearances, torture and illegal arrests and prosecutions. In Uganda and Tanzania, thousands have been killed during the political campaigns. Tanzania has for the first time unleashed terror in its people by jailing opposition leaders and staging one of the most fraudulent electoral processes in Africa and beyond.

While all this has been happening, the African Union has either gone ahead to congratulate the fraudulent winners and endorsing the culture of impunity in total disregard to its purpose and existence.

According the Stears, Open Data a non-profit program from focused on enabling leaders and citizens to understand and plan for Africa’s growth, the Month of November to December 2025 has at least six elections lined up. Five of the elections are categorized thus as authoritarian or flawed democracy and this available data should be used by the African Union to ensure that African despots do not continue to engage in political processes that are against the peoples and human rights.

It is a opinion I hold in high regard that if governments engage in electoral theft against the wishes of its subjects and engage in pilfering and plundering state resources while engaging in countless violation of human rights like mass killings, environmental degradation, corruption and holding on to power.

For the African Union to be seen as resourceful and worth, it must act in accordance to its objectives and principles. Now, it’s just a dummy institution not worth its operations.