This article examines whether the African Union’s policy of non-indifference has made a difference on the continent to issues concerning peace and security and the promotion and protection of human rights. It does so by contextualising the situation concerning peace and human rights in Africa, and by examining these against the principles of the responsibility to protect (R2P) and the principles established by the AU on matters of peace, security, human rights, and humanitarian intervention (HI). It does this by examining what humanitarian intervention and the responsibility to protect are, and what principles in regard to those legal norms that are found in the AU Constitutive Act as well as other African Union instruments. This is done to determine what progress the AU has made in that regard in dealing with conflict and human rights issues. The article traces the role of the OAU, and why it was transformed into the AU around concerns about its role on the continent and how it dealt with these matters. The article examines whether the African Union has carried out the commitments it has penned or whether the statements and principles in has adopted are merely rhetorical or have been operationalised. The article examines the African Union’s role in a number of country settings including Sudan (specifically Darfur), Libya, Nigeria, South Sudan, Kenya, and Burundi to determine whether the AU has truly implemented the goals it set for itself concerning non-indifference. The article makes recommendations on what can be done to truly make the AU an organisation that is non-indifferent and what is needed to deal with some of Africa’s peace and security tribulations and its human rights problems.

African economy in contemporary times is described as one that is highly dependent on the Global North for its sustenance despite, the enormous resources of the continent. This paper provides empirical evidence that African solutions remains better option to African problems. It employs the “False Paradigm Model” which is a variant of the Dependency theory. It also employ analytical tool in its investigation. It argues that despite the experimentation of external approach/strategies to development, African economies have not made meaningful progress in term of economic development. It suggests that African states must look inward for it developmental needs rather than on the Global North. The Asian Tigers (Newly Industrialized Countries) such as Malaysia, Singapore, and South Korea among others were at the same level of underdevelopment in the sixties but have developed leaving African countries behind. It further argues that African states must address the issue of corruption, political instability, poverty, bad governance, seat tight leadership. And embark on critical economic and political reforms that are people oriented that will address the weak state of private sector in Africa as well as good leadership style. Lastly, this paper argues that African states will not develop as long as they continue to depend of the Global North for it developmental needs African states will perpetually remain underdeveloped and indebted to the global North.

Scholars are divided over the African Union’s unity on Libya conflict in 2011, they however agree that the United Nations (UN) backed North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) intervention in Libya was successful because the African Union was truly divided and lacking in leadership. They contend that the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) intervention in Libya was a dishonest act which was politically and economically motivated in pursuit of the national interests of some UNSC’s permanent five (P5) states. Although the AU was unequivocal in its condemnation of the indiscriminate use of force and lethal weapons in Libya, the reaffirmation of its strong commitment to respect the unity and territorial integrity of Libya, and its rejection of any foreign military intervention in Libya, were suffocated by African disunity. Therefore, this paper is anchored on the thesis that Africa’s persistent political marginalization on major issues is the net effect not only of global power disparity but also of African disunity. To this end, this paper grapples with the following questions: why is Africa not truly united? Why was the AU divided on Libya? What lessons can be learnt from the Libyan crisis?

The political independence of African states in the 1960s provided opportunity for Africa to materialize the Pan-African desire for ‘African solutions to African problems’ as opposed to the dependence on, and impositions of, external powers. Over fifty years after independence however, the continent remains chronically dependent on external systems and interventions. Using Mills’ Racial Contract theory and Frantz Fanon’s Pitfalls of National Consciousness, the study engages with the causes of Africa’s continued dependency. The paper contends that the constraints in materializing ‘African solutions to African problems’ resides in the fact that while outside forces have condescendingly treated Africa as ‘a charity case’ from which no real solution to its woes can emerge, Africa’s lackluster and myopic leadership also share the blame for the miscarriage of a potentially sound ideal.

Peacekeeping has been a dominant theme of the African Union (AU) for decades and major operations have been undertaken by the regional organisation. This article takes into perspective an assessment of the AU peacekeeping operations, amidst its challenges and politics within the context of continental peace and security. The paper discovers that AU missions on the continent have been stalled by a lot of factors in the last few decades. These dynamics have made the AU role appears to be facilitating role to the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping rather than a dominant character. The paper concludes that when the overarching issues were addressed, the AU capacities and the proclivities for successful peacekeeping operation are at its ultimate.

For the architects of the African Union (AU), the organ of Peace and Security Council (PSC) is not just a clone of the Security Council of the United Nations; it is designed to provide security, forestall conflicts and maintain peace in Africa. Moreover, its Constitutive Acts provide for more engagement and greater scope in instances of both inter- and intra-state conflicts. However, the interventions of the PSC in some of Africa’s theatres of conflict have raised fundamental questions on how the organ performs its roles. This paper is therefore structured into four sections. The first section provides historic background of APSA and specifically focuses on AU’s PSC, African Standby Forces (ASF), Panel of the Wise (PoW) and Continental Early Warning System (CEWS). The second section briefly highlights the emerging security challenges in Africa, using Libya and Cote d’Ivoire as case studies. The third section examines AU’s response and why APSA failed in responding to the emerging security challenges in these troubled spots, and finally the fourth section concludes and recommends alternative strategies to how APSA can adequately respond to the emerging security challenges facing the continent.