Africa Must Learn to Build Peace Without Outsiders

(Opinion | Johnson Poru Hillary)

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In my role as a member of the African Union’s Peace and Security Youth Expert Roster, I have been privileged to engage in continental affairs at the highest levels. However, these experiences have forced me to confront a series of uncomfortable and harsh truths about our Member States. If we truly want #AfricaWantsPeace, we must stop looking outward and start looking in the mirror.

We often hear the rallying cry, “African solutions for African problems.” Yet, in the halls of power, “sovereignty” is too often used as a shield for inaction.

Many leaders demand that the UN and AU “stay out of internal affairs” while conflict is brewing, only to demand billions in humanitarian aid once the house has already burned down. We cannot logically demand non-interference and immediate global intervention at the same time.

We frequently blame the West for “milking the cow”, acting only when there are resources to protect. But the darker reality is that these “cows” are often sold by our own brothers.

International actors do not simply walk in; they are invited by local factions to help them defeat their rivals. External exploitation almost always requires a local key holder.

Why do the AU and IGAD sometimes remain silent? Because the AU can, at times, function as a “club of presidents” dealing with their own internal dissent.

Many leaders hesitate to condemn a neighbour’s war crimes because they fear setting a precedent that might one day be used against them. We are not only fighting Western indifference; we are also fighting a “brotherhood of silence” among our own elites.

We admire the West’s rapid response to crises such as Ukraine, but we forget that those nations have spent decades building unified economic and military blocs. Africa remains fragmented.

Until East Africa operates with a single economic heart and a truly unified standby force, one that does not rely on UN or EU funding, our “immediate response” will always be a phone call to New York or Brussels.

If we want African solutions, we must be ready for “African consequences”. True sovereignty means having the courage to put our own warmongers in our own jails. As long as we wait for the International Criminal Court in The Hague to do the “dirty work” of justice, we are admitting to the world that we are not yet ready to govern our own peace.

Let us be honest. The world is silent not because it is blind to our suffering, but because it has little interest in a house that refuses to stop setting itself on fire.

If we want African solutions, we must stop accepting foreign funding for our wars and foreign courts for our crimes. Peace is not a gift to be received from the United Nations; it is a demand we must first make of ourselves.

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Johnson Poru Hillary is a member of the African Union’s Peace and Security Youth Expert Roster. 

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