World: Conflict Trends Issue 4 | 2024

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Countries: World, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo Source: African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes Please refer to the attached file. his edition of Conflict Trends begins with three articles focused on national dialogues in Africa. The first article, written by Distinct Obuzor Imaka and Tonye Marclint Ebiede, discusses national dialogues in the context of fragile states. Their article conceptualises national dialogues and highlights the successful examples that have taken place in Africa. However, many states in Africa can be considered fragile, facing issues such as poor governance, competition for access to natural resources, inequality and economic exclusion. These issues can lead to political tensions that result in violence, with national dialogues offering an avenue to pursue peaceful solutions. National dialogues can help develop power sharing frameworks, which is particularly important in fragile states where state institutions often lack legitimacy. The article reflects on all of these factors in greater detail and offers a conclusion on how national dialogues can help African states navigate political tensions.The second article is written by Jean Yves Ndzana Ndzana who discusses ways to integrate African knowledge into national dialogue processes. The article explores ways in which national dialogues can be given a more African identify and transform them away from elite negotiation forums or procedural frameworks. In particular the article discusses the palaver tree as a national tribunal that would invite a broad range of stakeholders to open ended dialogues to build consensus and, making use of the elder-based systems, help repair broken social contracts and deal with issues of exclusion. Additionally, the palaver tree concept can also be applied to a republican confessional, which is a concept unpacked in the article as a setting where people who have committed wrongdoings can volunteer to confess and show remorse, thus providing a space for moral and civic accountability.The third article on national dialogues is about the challenges of regional national dialogues, written by Chido S. Mutangadura-Yeswa. The article discusses the East African Community’s (EAC) intervention in Burundi, during the political crisis in 2015. The EAC established a dialogue process, facilitated by Benjamin Mkapa, the former president of Tanzania, known as the Inter-Burundi Dialogue as a form of preventative diplomacy. The aim of the dialogue was to engage with various sectors of Burundian society by conducting a number of multi-track problem solving workshops. However, the process encountered a number of challenges such as a lack of civil space and government involvement and parallel processes that undermined the EAC’s Inter-Burundi Dialogue. The article further examines the role of regional organisations such as the EAC and their ability to conduct processes such as national dialogues in member states.Moving away from national dialogues, Matteo Peccini’s article discusses the rate of integration in Africa, using the Sahel as a case study. The article focuses on the evolution of integration at the peace and security level, as one of the aspects of political integration in Africa. As is discussed, the African Union (AU) has developed tools to mitigate and resolve conflicts over the decades, but these tools have not been fully deployed to deal with the crises plaguing the Sahel region. Due to the various crises that the Sahel has faced over the past decade, the region presents an opportunity to refine the AU’s peace and security architecture. However, this opportunity, for the most part, has been missed, despite many of the challenges facing the Sahel requiring regional and continental responses.