UNSC, PSC Hold Annual Meeting in Addis Ababa

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and the PSC of the African Union are holding their annual meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Thursday and Friday.

The proceedings were opened by AU Peace and Security Commissioner Bankole Adeoye, who urged participants to focus on the issue of funding for the continental organization's peacekeeping operations in Africa.

This has been a topic of discussion at the UNSC for over a decade, and African countries are calling for compulsory contributions from UN member countries to finance these operations.

A draft resolution has been negotiated between the two organizations since 2018 and was recently unblocked. Since the creation of its "African Peace and Security Architecture" in 2002, the AU has had difficulty funding its peace operations.

Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres' representative to the AU, hopes that the discussions in Addis Ababa will result in a framework resolution that will replace the current ad hoc agreement on financing essential peace operations on the continent.

He stated that funding AU-led peace and security operations will enhance the capacity of both organizations to deal with threats to peace and security on the continent.