TANZANIA is among the 15 African countries that have been elected new members of the African Union Peace and Security Council (AU-PSC).
The election was held during the two-day 35th African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government held on February 5 to 6 this year.
Other new members include Cameroon, Djibouti, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Burundi, Republic of Congo, Uganda, Tunisia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Senegal and the Gambia.
A statement issued on Monday by the Ambassador of Tanzania to Ethiopia Innocent Shiyo said the new members assumed their seats in the Peace and Security Council in April 2022.
"With new members come new perspectives, priorities, and approaches in this Council mandated with the maintenance and promotion of peace, security and stability on the continent," said the envoy.
He said, the chairmanship of the council rotates monthly, following the alphabetical order.
In this regard the Republic of Burundi Chaired the Council in April 2022 and helped steer the agenda of the standing policy body.
According to him, Tanzania is scheduled to chair the Council in March 2023.
The priorities set by Burundi included the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia, the process in the Great Lakes region pertaining to the situation in the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the political transition processes in Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea, Mali and Sudan.
"The council called for predictable, sustainable and adequate financing for the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), the successor mission to the African Union Mission in Somalia," he said.
Moreover, the Council urged the United Nations Security Council to authorize the use of UN assessed contributions to fund ATMIS to preserve the positive gains made by AMISOM.
Over 15 years, AMISOM played a critical role and made significant gains in battling Al Shabaab in Somalia.
ATMIS will continue in this task and will walk with the Somali people until December 2024 as they transition to normalcy.
On 15th May 2022 ATMIS supported by providing security to facilitate the successful holding of the delayed Presidential elections in Somalia whereby Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was elected.
He is expected to lead Somalia during this period whereby ATMIS will hand over all peace and security responsibilities to Somali security forces.
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On the situation in eastern DRC, the Council expressed concern over the resurgence of the M23 rebel group in Kivu and Ituri regions and the continued ADF threat, and it officially recognized the situation and atrocities committed in DRC as terrorism.
On the political transitions in Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea, Mali and Sudan aimed at the restoration of constitutional order, the Council stressed the importance of addressing the root causes and establishing post-conflict stabilization projects.
"Burundi also led the Council in considering the question of early warning and early action by the African Union with a view to responding to looming crisis situations prior to their escalation," he said.
The Council also held an informal consultation session of youth, peace and security in Africa which was presided over by Evariste Ndayishimiye, the President of the Republic of Burundi.
In May 2022, under the Chairmanship of the Republic of Cameroon, the Peace and Security of Council is expecting to put at the top of its priorities the issues of coup d'etats and unconstitutional changes of Government, terrorism and the humanitarian crisis facing parts of the continent.
The Peace and Security Council has sanctioned Member States 19 times for unconstitutional changes of government, and four of these suspension measures were taken within the period after June 2021.
The scope of the threat of terrorism continues to grow as evidenced by a terrorist attack on a military base as recent as 11 May 2022 in northern Togo, the first such attack in this country which finds itself in a region widely plagued by the threat of terrorism.
