Commemoration of Africa Day of Peace and Reconciliation

Sudan Events – Sumaya Sayed 

Tomorrow (31 January), the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council (PSC) will convene its 1198th session where it will discuss the commemoration of the ‘Africa Day of Peace and Reconciliation’ as its second agenda item for the session.

Following the first agenda item for the session on Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Development (PCRD), the PSC will proceed to address the second agenda item for the session on Africa Day of Peace and Reconciliation. The session will take place virtually with an opening statement by the chairperson of the PSC for the month, Amma A. Twum-Amoah, Permanent Representative of Ghana to the AU. This will be followed by a statement by Bankole Adeoye, Commissioner of Political Affairs, Peace and Security. Mr Domingos Miguel Bembe, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Angola to the African Union may also provide a briefing on the Biennale of Luanda Pan-African Forum as the AU Champion for Peace and Reconciliation.

31st January was designated as ‘Africa Day of Peace and Reconciliation’ during the 16th Extraordinary Session of the Assembly of the AU in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, where the Declaration on Terrorism and Unconstitutional Changes of Government (UCGs). Before the establishment of 31 January as the Africa Day of Peace and Reconciliation, the AU PSC has since as early as 2013 convened a total of six sessions solely dedicated to the agenda of the national reconciliation processes The 899th session of the PSC convened under Angola’s chairship called for an annual convening on experience sharing among member states that have undergone national reconciliation and set the basis for the inaugural session of the Africa Day of Peace and Reconciliation. Among others, in some of the sessions the PSC’s request for the establishment of a draft AU policy framework on justice and reconciliations.