The African Union completed its annual summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, this week without dealing effectively with either of the continent's two big problems, Darfur and Somalia.
It is fair for the rest of the world to expect regional organizations like the European Union, the League of Arab States and others to at least have a first crack at dealing with the problems that occur in their spheres.
The African Union fell short on Darfur, the problem in Sudan that has led to thousands of deaths and millions of displaced persons as well as sputtering internal conflict and spillover of disorder into Chad and the Central African Republic. All the group achieved was preventing Sudanese President Gen. Omar Hassan al-Bashir from being elected head of the African Union, which would have been a scandal, given the situation in Darfur. Ghanaian President John Kufuor was chosen instead, after intense bargaining.
The 7,000-man AU peacekeeping force in Darfur, which has been inadequate to deal with the security and humanitarian problems of the area, is supposed to be folded into a larger United Nations unit, but that has yet to occur, with the Sudanese government resisting the move. The summit apparently made no progress on that.
The meeting also failed to organize a peacekeeping force for Somalia. Ethiopia invaded Somalia, overthrew its government and replaced it with one that it favors. The Ethiopians now want to withdraw their troops. The Somali government they installed wants an AU force to protect it and keep it in power. An estimated initial force may require at least 8,000 troops. The AU summit was able to get commitments from Uganda and Nigeria of 4,000. Either 8,000 or 4,000 is a laughable number, given the magnitude of the Somalia problem, but it is nonetheless shameful that the AU, among its 53 members, couldn't muster 8,000 troops to keep Somalia -- without a government since 1991 -- in relative order.
The reasons for the AU failure to act are finances and fear. The Somali Islamic forces, which retreated rather than be destroyed by the Ethiopians and the United States (which provided the Ethiopians air support), have said they will fight any foreign troops who try to intervene in Somali affairs.
Whether the rest of the world should pick up what the AU failed to do is another question. It will be difficult to get other nations to act when the African Union has not found the will to confront the problems of Darfur and Somalia.
First Published: February 2, 2007, 5:00 a.m.
