The African Union Commission launched on Tuesday the 14th High-Level Retreat on the Promotion of Peace, Security, and Stability in Africa with the theme, "Resetting Preventive Diplomacy and Mediation for the 21st Century in Africa" in Cairo. The event, held in collaboration between the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the African Union Commission, and the Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping, and Peacebuilding (CCCPA), will run from 17 to 18 October. Hamdi Loza, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for African Affairs, gave an opening speech in which he noted that Egypt initiated this retreat in 2010, hosting it for the fifth time after hosting its sessions in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2016. He emphasized that hosting this retreat reflects Egypt's constant commitment to support efforts to maintain peace and security and achieve stability in Africa and as a continuation of its contributions to developing the continent's policies, concepts, and approaches in response to the threats it faces. Loza presented Egypt's vision to deal with the challenges facing Africa, highlighting the need to reformulate the continent's approach from a comprehensive and integrated perspective that addresses the root causes of conflicts and ensures a continuous response to all phases of conflict. This vision always gives priority to preventive diplomacy and conflict prevention, promoting sustainable solutions to the challenges of financing peace, security, and development activities on the continent and deepening the strategic partnership between Africa and international actors, especially between the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN). He added. He stressed the need to reform the multilateral system, including the UN and international financial institutions, to make it more fair and effective, to address the historical injustices that Africa has long suffered from, and among them, to ensure greater and more effective representation of the continent in the UN Security Council under the African common position based on the Ezulwini Consensus and the Sirte Declaration. Moussa Faki Mahamat, chairperson of the AU Commission, discussed the complex and multiple challenges faced by Africa, which unfortunately limit the continent's ability to achieve the goals set out in its Agenda 2063 and the Silencing the Guns initiative. He expressed his concern that this would lead to losing the gains of peace and development. He emphasized the need to develop radical solutions to the continent's problems, activate the principle of African solutions to African problems, and ensure a seat for the continent at the table to shape its future in light of this changing world order. He concluded by stressing the importance of working multilaterally to activate preventive diplomacy efforts. He expressed his confidence that this retreat will contribute to achieving this goal. Ashraf Swelim, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs and director of the Department of African Organizations and Associations, stressed the need to work on developing and reformulating the continent's approach to dealing with peace, security, and development issues in Africa from a comprehensive perspective. This is based on an in-depth understanding of how the nature and drivers of conflicts in the continent have evolved and what factors affect them and lead to their persistence.
