⋄ CODESRIA Bulletin Online, No. 17, June 2021 - Retrospecting to Prospect : Quo Vadis Africa

that default on payment of their bo Mbeki of South Africa, Ab- contribution to the Union budget; doulaye Wade of Senegal and The Constitutive Act of and b) for failure to comply with Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, the African Union and the policies of the Union. [...] threat to use force among Mem- • The Panel of the Wise ber States of the Union • A Continental Early Warning In examining the progress made, (h) the right of the Union to intervene System let us take a sample of situations in a Member State pursuant to the • An African Standby Force on the continent in the last year or decision of the Assembly in res- • A Special Fund. [...] 17, June 2021 Page 4 the day, we have come to expect The action or inaction of the AU of suspending a Member State or that any take-over of government Commission has tended to cement imposing sanctions is not the res- by the force of arms will be met a pattern that weakens the integrity ponsibility of the Commission but by the suspension of that Member of the normative instrument and of AU Member. [...] The backing of ac- come together, completing the returned to their families in the rest tors from the Gulf has contributed unravelling of the AU peace ar- of Ethiopia? Who is counting the to the erosion of AU norms. [...] Indeed, there is are we hearing only the voices of security in the Horn of Africa significant foreign military presence external actors—the US and the and role of external actors in Africa and it is noteworthy that it European Union—on this? Can is not only the forces of the former we avoid a repeat of Libya, where If the silence of African leaders in colonisers, like France and the UK, Africa was.