Nigeria inaugurates AU peace forum to appraise security intervention

Geoffery Onyema

THE Federal Government has inaugurated Peace Support Operations Forum (PSOF) in Abuja to appraise African Union (AU)’s efforts in the deployment, management and liquidation of peace support operations across the continent.

The forum, tagged: Inaugural Lessons Learned Forum on African Union Peace Support Operations (PSO) and the African Standby Force (ASF), is organised by the Nigerian government and the AU Commission through the Department of Political Affairs, Peace and Security (PAPS) in fulfillment of the directives of the AU Peace and Security to build on lessons and knowledge exchange for peace consolidation in Africa.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffery Onyema, in his opening statement, noted that the lesson learnet from the Forum would offer opportunity for the AU member-states and partners to examine the efficacy of the AU PSO interventions, especially challenges faced; techniques used to mitigate those challenges and lessons that had been learnt to improve future AU interventions and collaborations with regional groups and member-states at large.

Onyema further stated that the changing nature of conflicts on the continent over the last couple of decades, gives imperative to this discussion.

The minister urged the Forum to interrogate and proffer solutions to the most workable models of PSO interventions in Africa, bearing in mind that a single model will not necessarily be suitable for all the peace and security issues on the continent.

In his remarks, the AU Commissioner for Political, Peace and Security, Ambassador Bankole Adeoye, explained that the Inaugural Lesson Learned Forum is the culmination of a personal desire to ensure that the continent continuously enhance its tools and mechanisms to address conflict, peace and security.

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