The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), under the leadership of President Félix Tshisekedi, has demonstrated its commitment to regional integration in Central Africa. This commitment has been maintained despite COVID-19, which has not stalled the ongoing Economic Community of Central African States’ (ECCAS) institutional reform process as some may have feared. Instead, not only are the countries of the subregion moving forward with the reform agenda, but they have also adopted a regional response to the pandemic, which addresses its cross-border aspects.
While the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) learnt valuable lessons from the recent Ebola outbreak in the east of the country, the global nature of COVID-19 – which was accompanied by severe movement restrictions, healthcare risks and profound socio-economic shifts – challenged the way we were doing business and required a fundamental shift in our approach.
There are lessons to be learnt from the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) approach and decision to declare an end to its national state of emergency, in spite of increasing numbers of infections and growing strained relations between the government and some of its citizens.
When Africa surpassed 1 million COVID-19 infections on 7 August 2020, the Great Lakes region1 ranked as the continent’s worst-hit area. Accounting for roughly one third of Africa’s total population, the region reported over 60% of Africa’s confirmed infections (600 000 cases) and more than 50% of its fatalities (11 500 cases). South Africa faced by far the heaviest caseload, followed by Kenya, Sudan and the DRC.
About one million people on the African continent are now infected by COVID-19. And while we are still pondering how to rescue lives and assess the damage of the health crisis, two more ‘pandemics’ are still to come: the socio-economic spillover of the health pandemic, and its political consequences. With that comes the massive risk to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of creating peace, justice and inclusion (SDG16).
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed massive inequalities within our societies and has brought to light the unique burdens that women globally carry. As we respond to the impacts of COVID-19, both in the immediate and long term, we have an unprecedented opportunity to completely redesign our ways of living through innovative and large-scale action that can cater for the magnitude of transforming the African continent. The allocation of response resources should be dually focused on the immediate needs of managing the virus and, simultaneously, on the future, to dismantle the structural and systemic barriers that reinforce inequality and disenfranchisement. We have been presented with the opportunity to reimagine and redesign our society into one that is vibrant and equitable. We must place women at the core of the response and beyond.
In 1956, my generation of women organised and mobilised 20 000 women across South Africa to march on the Union Buildings in Pretoria. Our protest action was against the oppressive system of apartheid. Today, as we commemorate the importance of the 1956 Women’s March in South Africa’s history, I want to assert that the struggles we faced then are not dissimilar to what today’s generation of women is being called upon to respond to.
The call for a global ceasefire by United Nations (UN) Secretary General António Guterres came at an appropriate time, when the world needed to stop fighting and focus on the danger of the COVID-19 pandemic looming over us. However, more collective and inclusive action is required to make this a reality.
The era of coronavirus (COVID-19) is unprecedented and offers an opportunity to manage prison populations on the continent in a different but innovative manner. It is imperative that governments consider the need to decongest prisons through a number of measures to ensure the human rights of prisoners and to further limit the spread of COVID-19 to the outside population.
Africa’s diplomatic system has adjusted swiftly to the new coronavirus (COVID-19) realities of conducting business. This is visible in the flurry of virtual consultations among decision-makers to chart common ways forward. The high number of African Union (AU)-led consultations over the past few months reflect a deep-seated conviction that collective action is the best way to address Africa’s challenges effectively.
Some of the measures put in place by governments to contain COVID-19 appear to be linked to an increase in organised crime that profits from, among others, smuggling people and goods such as alcohol and cigarettes (that have been banned as part of the COVID-19 measures).
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had an impact on peace support operations (PSOs) in many ways. Not only has the increase and spread of the pandemic affected PSO personnel inside their respective field missions in terms of stress, morale, command and control of forces, but it has also disrupted their routine activities, including confidence-building activities and the rotation of troops after completing their tours of duty.
COVID-19 has eroded some of the peacebuilding gains made in Liberia over the last decade and a half. The threat posed by COVID-19 to sustaining peace in Liberia has increased the need to strengthen regional and sub-regional collaboration and international cooperation to contain and mitigate the impact of COVID-19.
It is now some 165 days since the first coronavirus (COVID-19) case was diagnosed in Africa, on 14 February 2020 in Egypt. Many commentators expected that Africa, with its high levels of underdevelopment and weak public health systems, would be particularly badly affected by COVID-19, and that this could even lead to a catastrophic collapse of social and political stability. So far, however, the emerging pattern is one of resilience rather than collapse, chaos and conflict.
West Africa and the Sahel, which have been in the throes of insurgencies since the early 1990s and have had to deal with extremist violence from the mid-2000s, are faced with a new challenge: how do already underfunded, resource-constrained and, in most cases, poorly trained security forces respond to new threats?
The lockdown-type measures adopted by governments to prevent the spread of COVID-19 has deprived mediators and facilitators of the opportunity to use these important tools to resolve African conflicts and consolidate the implementation of peace agreements. However, we hope for a successful fight against COVID-19 in Africa that will reopen opportunities for mediation in Africa.
At least 22 countries in Africa were scheduled to hold either local government, parliamentary or presidential elections this year. Given the almost universal strategies adopted to prevent the spread of coronavirus – including restricting people to their homes, border closures, travel restrictions and banning large gatherings – the decision whether to continue with some of the elections despite COVID-19 became a controversial issue. Stated differently, the decision came down to either preserving the vote or the voter.
The year 2020 is a significant milestone for gender equality and women’s empowerment, as it marks the anniversary of unprecedented policy commitments and practical action frameworks.1 The COVID-19 pandemic has abruptly disrupted plans to assess the progress of these milestones, celebrate the achievements and set new objectives or goals.