“Many new opportunities are emerging for Africa.” This is what Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis wrote in the foreword to the Federal Council's Sub-Saharan Africa Strategy 2021-2024. It was precisely this potential that was at the centre of an open debate at the UN Security Council today, chaired by Mozambique. ‘We can further mobilise the potential of African countries based on their experience in the field of prevention,’ emphasised Swiss UN Ambassador Pascale Baeriswyl in New York.
Africa continues to face various challenges. Instability and conflict on the African continent stem from a mixture of profound causes: lack of economic prospects, weak state presence in some regions, competition for resources and the indirect consequences of climate change. Effective conflict prevention must take all these instability factors and their interactions into account.
In New York, Switzerland emphasised that the knowledge and insights of African states from a decades-long tradition of conflict resolution and mediation have great potential for national conflict prevention. This also includes dealing with the past, which is an important pillar for creating sustainable peace. For example, there is a special court in Sierra Leone and a truth commission in South Africa to establish justice for victims of human rights violations. Such institutions also serve to prevent future atrocities and promote the reconciliation of communities.
African states and the African Union are well positioned to play an important role in prevention not only on the African continent but also at multilateral level. In New York, the representative of Switzerland emphasised the great potential of increased cooperation between the African Union and the UN Security Council. The Council can learn from the experiences of African countries in the area of conflict prevention. For example, the exchange between the Security Council and the African Union planned during the Swiss Security Council Presidency in October 2024 is an important instrument for the mutual exchange of information.
