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This study focuses the efficacy of the African Union in dealing with the Internal Armed Conflicts around the central Africa particularly in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The African Constitutive Act states that one of the objectives of the Union is the maintenance of peace and security. Despite this premise African countries have continued to experience internal armed conflicts with the massive killings of innocents‟ civilians. In dealing with these problems of civil wars in African countries, the African Union is the main regional organisation. The Organisation of African Union (OAU), the African Union‟s (AU) predecessor has attempted to deal with the challenge of internal armed conflicts. The formation of AU on May 25, 1963 brings hope about the future of Africa in security and maintenance of peace. But inversely Africa under AU still continues to experience massive internal armed conflicts around the region. This argument forms the main theme of the research. By developing this idea the study will seek to find out why there are continuing internal armed conflicts in central Africa (DRC), the way AU has been dealing with such problems, what are the bottlenecks of the AU in dealing with these problems and what is the position of the law in dealing with these issues. The study will reveal some factors undermining the African Union in solving the internal armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo include lack of resources in the organisation, externalisation of the conflict, poor financial power of the organisation and absence of standard socio-economic development in DRC. Also continued foreign interference intensify the violent element in DRC and the economy of the DRC has been militarised in the sense that armed conflict has become an ordinary means of making a living for part of the population. Some of the measures suggested by the respondents were to amend the AU Constitutive Act, to empower the African Union in solving the conflict, solving national issues, including weak economy, weak security and intelligence apparatus.
The conclusion of the study is that the African Constitutive Act does not compel members of the African Union to help each other in the case of the internal armed conflicts. The organisation is a loose type of regional organisation whose emphasis is moral rather than legal obligations on respect for its member‟s national sovereignty. Therefore solving internal armed conflicts failed to become operational because the Organisation mainly depends on the consent of the members. The study recommends enactment of the law which will protect States in case of the internal armed conflicts and amendments be made on Article 9 of the Constitutive Act of the African Union so as to include members of the organisation to be obliged to contribute under the new law to help each other in case of internal armed conflicts. |
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