Africa’s top regional body is hosting its annual summit in Ethiopia this weekend to discuss the future of the continent of about 1.4 billion people, but across the continent the organization is becoming less popular.
Set up to “promote the unity and solidarity of the African States,” analysts said the African Union (AU) is facing a legitimacy crisis among the continent’s youth after failing to meet their expectations. African countries are battling military coups, disputed elections and protests inspired by hardship worsened by foreign aid cuts.
Africa has the youngest population in the world with more than 400 million people aged 15 to 35 years old, but is also home to several of the world’s oldest and longest-serving leaders — a paradox that has contributed to an upsurge in coups.
Photo: AFP
With a young population set to double by 2050, it is the only rapidly growing region where its people are getting poorer. In different countries and on social media, African youths view the AU as a bloc of old leaders and one which sees their interests as less of a priority.
The organization has missed opportunities to be people-centered and citizen-driven and has instead focused largely on governments and leaders, Crisis Group senior analyst Liesl Louw-Vaudran said.
“What the youth is really asking and why people are frustrated is because this is not an African Union for citizens. It’s not a people-driven African Union,” Louw-Vaudran added.
As several African countries held elections for new presidents over the past year, there was a clear pattern of sidelined opposition candidates, disputed results and protests from mostly young voters after incumbents were re-elected.
Despite the election outcomes, the AU was often accused of being quick to side with re-elected incumbents and slow to call out flawed processes.
As authorities in Uganda shut down the Internet and clamped down on the opposition during its presidential election last month, the AU Commission issued a statement “commending” the conduct of the poll. A day after, the AU election observer mission issued a preliminary report noting “reports of harassment, intimidation, and arrest of opposition leaders, candidates, supporters’ media and civic society actors” in the election.
The AU social media post commending the election enraged many youths, with one person retorting: “Dictatorship club has spoken.”
One key challenge the AU has battled with over the years is weak enforcement of resolutions, US International University Nairobi history professor Macharia Munene said.
That is because “not all members meet their dues or fully accept what is generally decided,” he said.
At the 39th AU Summit in Ethiopia’s capital of Addis Ababa yesterday and today, the theme is water and sanitation. Discussions would feature the continent’s response to climate change and humanitarian crises following foreign aid cuts from international partners such as the US.
Observers said the AU Summit would provide an opportunity to align continental priorities with international partners, especially at a time of discussions around a ‘new world order’ stirred by US President Donald Trump with foreign leaders signaling shifting global alliances.
Still, critics urged the AU to look inward by paying closer attention to the continent’s most pressing challenges and doing more to hold leaders accountable when they fail to meet expectations.
In Nigeria’s capital of Abuja, resident Chima Ekwueme said the AU does not care about holding leaders accountable, citing Nigeria’s deadly security crises and economic hardship despite its rich mineral wealth.
“They are there for their own interests,” Ekwueme said. “In Nigeria, we have all it takes to put things in order, [but] look at how difficult things are and where is the AU.”
KINGPIN: Marset allegedly laundered the proceeds of his drug enterprise by purchasing and sponsoring professional soccer teams and even put himself in the starting lineups Notorious Latin American narco trafficker Sebastian Marset, who eluded police for years, was handed over to US authorities after his arrest on Friday in Bolivia. Marset, a Uruguayan national who was on the US most-wanted list, was passed to agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration at Santa Cruz airport in Bolivia, then put on a US airplane, Bolivian state television showed. “The arrest and deportation were carried out pursuant to a court order issued by the US justice system,” Bolivian Minister of Government Marco Antonio Oviedo told reporters. The alleged kingpin was arrested in an upscale neighborhood of Santa
ACTIONABLE ADVICE: The majority of chatbots tested provided guidance on weapons, tactics and target selections, with Perplexity and Meta AI deemed to be the least safe From school shootings to synagogue bombings, leading artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots helped researchers plot violent attacks, according to a study published on Wednesday that highlighted the technology’s potential for real-world harm. Researchers from the nonprofit watchdog Center for Countering Digital Hate and CNN posed as 13-year-old boys in the US and Ireland to test 10 chatbots, including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Deepseek and Meta AI. Eight of the chatbots assisted the make-believe attackers in more than half the responses, providing advice on “locations to target” and “weapons to use” in an attack, the study said. The chatbots had become a “powerful accelerant for
SCANDAL: Other images discovered earlier show Andrew bent over a female and lying across the laps of a number of women, while Mandelson is pictured in his underpants A photograph of former British prince Andrew and veteran politician Peter Mandelson sitting in bathrobes alongside late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was unearthed on Friday in previously published documents. The image is believed to be the first known photograph of the two men with Epstein. They are currently engulfed in scandal in the UK over their ties to their mutual friend. The undated photograph, first reported by ITV News, shows King Charles III’s disgraced brother and former British ambassador to the US sitting barefoot outside on a wooden deck. They appear to have mugs with a US flag on them
Since the war in the Middle East began nearly two weeks ago, the telephone at Ron Hubbard’s bomb shelter company in Texas has not stopped ringing. Foreign and US clients are rushing to buy his bunkers, seeking refuge in case of air raids, nuclear fallout or apocalypse. With the US and Israel pounding Iran, and Tehran retaliating with strikes across the region, Hubbard has seen demand for his product soar, mostly from Gulf nation customers in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. “You can imagine how many people are thinking: ‘I wish I had a bomb shelter,’” Hubbard, 63, said in
RSS