COVID-19 Conflict & Resilience Monitor – 24 November 2021

China’s COVID-19 assistance to Africa is a continuation of a long-dated tradition of public health cooperation. During the early stages of the epidemic (and later pandemic), African countries were first to show their support and assistance to China. China’s reciprocation of Africa’s assistance has filled a void in the absence of other partners but has yet to reach its full potential and has not produced vaccine distribution equity. 

While international attention has been fixated on the violent extremism in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, and rightly so, owing to the threats posed to local communities there and foreign direct investment in the whole of Southern Africa, neighbouring Malawi has quietly progressed in developing its formal National Peace Architecture (NPA). The NPA’s pilot structures stand Malawi in good stead to handle potential regional contagion effects deriving from instability in northern Mozambique.

As rumours of a coup in Sudan trickled through social media in the early hours of Sunday, 24 October, and were then confirmed in the news media by the morning of the 25th, African citizens turned to the African Union (AU), the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and neighbouring states for a reaction. Even though the AU and the IGAD issued statements condemning the suspension of the Constitutional Declaration and the Transitional Government, the general view was that these responses were not robust enough.  There is a growing awareness that statements issued by intergovernmental organisations at the onset of crises play a catalytic role in setting the tone for the international response, and as such, it is important that the intensity of such statements should be commensurate with the seriousness of the incident or development they respond too.