On 19 August 2022, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, announced that the humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia was worse than the one in Ukraine. But ever since Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine on 24 February, the global community has been falling over itself to find solutions to this complex, violent conflict.

Some African Union (AU) leaders have also expressed serious concerns and have become active in trying to resolve the war in Ukraine. For instance, the AU chairperson, President Macky Sall of Senegal, paid a visit to Russia, while the envoys of the two warring countries have continued to solicit support in Africa for their respective efforts.

By 14 August, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights had recorded 13,212 civilian casualties in Ukraine (5,514 killed and 7,698 injured). In Tigray, by contrast, The Globe and Mail in Canada reported in March that between 50,000 and 100,000 people had been killed, between 150,000 and 200,000 had died from starvation, and more than 100,000 had died through a lack of access to healthcare facilities.

Basic amenities such as schools, electricity and hospitals have been destroyed. More than two million people have fled their homes and an additional 2.5 million need life-saving humanitarian assistance in the war-affected areas. In addition to this, the media have also become victims due to their restricted access to the war zone — no thanks to the Ethiopian government.

As predicted at the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war, the conflict in Europe has shifted the attention of the global community from conflict situations in Africa to those in Europe. In furtherance of North-South relations, Africa continues to attract less attention from the global powers.

For instance, the United States, under President Joe Biden, has allocated about $54-billion in aid and military equipment to Ukraine, while it has sent about $488-million to help those suffering in the 18-month conflict in Ethiopia.

Similarly, the United Kingdom has offered an estimated £2.3-billion in military support to Ukraine. This is in addition to the £1.5-billion in humanitarian and economic aid extended to the country since the outbreak of the war.

Between November 2020 and October 2021, the UK donated about £75-million to ameliorate suffering in the war-torn zone in Africa. While the Russia-Ukraine situation is different from the Ethiopia-Tigray war, Europe and the United States have shown less commitment to combating the threats to lives in Africa.

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 Racialisation of migration

Furthermore, the war in Europe has also exposed the racialisation of the European Union’s (EU) stance on migration, as Ukrainian migrants are gladly received by EU member states, while African migrants — fleeing violent conflict — have been regularly subjected to inhumane conditions.

Why is the world turning its eyes from the plight of Africans, including the merciless killings in Tigray? While this should not be a rude shock, one would have expected more commitment from African leaders, the African Union and other regional groups to forge ahead with helping to prevent the hundreds of thousands of innocent lives from being lost in Ethiopia, thereby activating the long-forgotten slogan, “African solutions to African problems”.

Ironically, the distance between the Tigray war zone and the seat of the AU in Addis Ababa is less than 1,000km.

In addition to this intentional or unintentional neglect by the African Union, other segments of the continent — including the academic community and mass media — are also culpable.

In Africa, the Russia-Ukraine war has received wider coverage in the mass media, and the research and think-tank communities have continued to host hundreds of webinars and in-person engagements on the crisis, while practitioners of peace and conflict in Africa have become so busy. Since November 2020, when the Ethiopian government started its military operation in Tigray, the siege has not received this type of attention.

AU incapacity

Many commentators have committed the sin of neglecting the AU’s financial and institutional incapacity to live up to its expectations. However, the African Union could have performed better in terms of promoting peace and security on the continent — its peace and security architecture has underperformed.

The AU’s African Standby Force (ASF) has refused to “stand by” and be dispatched to conflict areas such as Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mozambique, where sub-regional forces have been operating.

The inability of the ASF to take charge in conflicts in Africa is particularly bizarre because the 14th Extraordinary Assembly on Silencing the Guns, which was held in December 2020, declared the full operationalisation of the ASF and mandated the AU’s Peace and Security Council to use its framework to mandate and authorise its Peace Support Operations.

What has happened to the AU’s Panel of the Wise, or its Continental Early Warning System (CEWS)? It is difficult to locate the main core of the warning system. While some have accused African actors of neglecting credible early warning reports of looming outbreaks of conflict or humanitarian crises, others have attributed its struggles to institutional incapacity and the complex flow of information among different structures of the CEWS.

Incidentally, the last tenure of the Panel of the Wise ended before the siege of Tigray in 2020. The revitalisation of the five-member panel in March 2022 should give hope to Africa’s troubled zones, starting with the urgency to resolve the hostility between the Tigray leadership and the Ethiopian government.

The Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation will host a three-day symposium to reflect on the AU@20 in Pretoria from 2-4 November. Apart from engaging the performances of the AU@20, at the top of the agenda will be how to ensure sustainable peace and proffer sustainable policy templates to enhance the AU’s regional approach to development.

No price is too high for peace and security. The continental body and other regional leaders have the responsibility to make “All Lives Matter” on the continent. DM

Dr Adeoye O Akinola is Head of Research and teaching at the University of Johannesburg’s Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation, South Africa.