The security challenges facing Africa are enormous and multifaceted. These challenges are both conventional and non conventional, e.g violent extremism, insurgency, armed robbery, piracy, narcotic trafficking, human trafficking, post-conflict stabilization, resource, identity conflict and other forms of organised crime. Terrorism is also on the rise in some regions of the continent.
Given this wide array of challenges, coupled with the high level of unemployed youth and bad governance across most of the continent, there are growing concerns of a long term deteriorating effect.
On one hand proponents of democracy have argued that good governance is the key solution to this problem while on the other hand, development experts see the problem through a different prism. They argue that under development and the lack of opportunities for a better life are the driving factors behind much of the insecurity on the continent. The struggle over scarce and natural resources has been identified as the core of the major conflicts in Africa.
Oil, Gold, Diamond, Bauxite, Timber and even water are some of the many resources that have recently pushed countries and communities across Africa into costly wars. The rise of piracy in the Somalia waters has opened a new front that needs urgent attention.
Both regional and international partners are engaged in a fierce battle to curb and mitigate as well as prevent all these security concerns. The rise of political instability as a result of bad governance as well as bad diplomacy by the international community in some cases is exacerbating pressure on these efforts.
How the continent will fairy and overcome these security challenges over the next years is an issue occupying the minds of most Africa security experts.
Making Africa safe is fast becoming a priority to many external partners given the strategic importance of the continent as the world economic dynamics continue to evolve with the compass pointing toward the continent.
It is in this light that the Africa Policy Forum has made security one of its core are areas of interest. We shall be engaging our experts and partners in this field for insightful debates, as well as making available selected publications on the issue for our audience.