Yilma Adamu
Updated on December 12, 12:25 A.M. Toronto Time to correct Author name
The recent debacle in which the African Union found itself helping Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed stage a theatrical “peace accord” between a former Fano figure and the Amhara regional president is unfortunate, though hardly surprising. At this point, expecting the AU to behave as a neutral arbiter is like expecting a referee hired by one of the teams to call a fair match.
If you want to understand why the AU so often acts like the continent’s most passive institution, look no further than its membership. It’s essentially a club of heads of state—many of whom are far more interested in protecting each other than in protecting democracy. They fund it, host it, rotate its leadership, and naturally expect it to return the favor by asking as few uncomfortable questions as possible. Asking the AU to hold these leaders accountable is like asking someone to cut the very branch they’re sitting on.
The accusation that the AU avoids confronting misrule is not just common—it’s accurate. Many of the same leaders who attend its summits are the ones presiding over flawed elections, arresting political opponents, intimidating journalists, and unleashing security forces on unarmed citizens. When the AU finally musters the courage to comment, the statements are so cautiously phrased that you’d think they were addressing a scheduling mishap rather than a constitutional crisis.
Nothing exposes this reluctance more than elections. AU observer missions have perfected the art of polite understatement. Even when ballot boxes appear out of thin air, media is gagged, and incumbents treat state resources like campaign donations, the AU somehow concludes that the elections were “largely peaceful” or “reflective of the will of the people”—a phrase that conveniently avoids defining which people. After years of this, Africans have learned the pattern: even if an election collapses in broad daylight, the AU will most likely pat it on the head and pronounce it stable.
Meanwhile, many leaders have turned extending their rule into a national sport. Constitutions are rewritten, term limits quietly dissolved, and presidencies transformed into retirement plans. The AU rarely flinches. Yet let a military officer seize power and suddenly the AU rediscovers its principles. Apparently, coups are only unacceptable when they arrive in uniform, not when they come disguised as legal reform.
All this is unfolding while the continent faces more conflicts than at any time in recent memory. From the Sahel to Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Mozambique, and the DRC, crises are multiplying faster than the AU can draft a communiqué. Funding shortages, political interference by member states, and slow, consensus-based decision-making all contribute to an institution that reacts too late, too softly, or not at all.
This leaves the AU in an awkward place. Its founding documents promise democracy, human rights, and continental peace; its practice delivers hesitation, deference to incumbents, and endless meetings that resolve less than they discuss. The gap between aspiration and action grows wider every year.
Given all that, it might be time to call the AU by a name that fits its behavior rather than its mission: the Forum for Corrupt Leaders, Oligarchs, and Cronies of Africa—FCLOCA. A little blunt, yes, but at least it’s accurate.
Editor’s Note : Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com
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“They fund it,”
The African Union (AU) is mostly funded by the owners such as China and European countries. These two groups also do the maintenance. Ethiopia is just a placeholder for nefarious reasons.