What is the primary focus of the 10th African Peace and Security Annual Conference (APSACO) 2026?

The conference aims to reassess a decade of security crises and peace efforts across the African continent.

10th African Peace and Security Annual Conference (APSACO) 2026

Name: 10th African Peace and Security Annual Conference (APSACO) 2026
Start: 2026-06-11T00:00:00Z
End: 2026-06-11T00:00:00Z
Location: Rabat

Jun 11, 2026Rabat, MoroccoIn-person

Registration open

The 10th African Peace and Security Annual Conference (APSACO) 2026 will convene in Rabat, MAR, bringing together stakeholders to critically reassess the trajectory of peace and security across the African continent over the past decade. This significant gathering aims to analyze the evolving nature of conflicts, the effectiveness of current security architectures, and the socio-economic factors influencing stability. The conference provides a crucial platform for dialogue among policymakers, academics, civil society representatives, and international partners. Participants will engage in discussions designed to identify gaps in existing strategies and to formulate forward-looking approaches to address persistent and emerging security threats, fostering a more stable and prosperous future for the region.

Committees & topics

Topics
African Security Challenges: A Continental Overview · Terrorism and Violent Extremism in Africa · The Resurgence of Coups d'État in Africa · Regional Conflicts and Cross-Border Wars · Great-Power Geopolitical Rivalries on the Continent · Peace Operations in Africa: From UN Missions to AU-Led Deployments · Political Instability and Governance Crises · Foreign Powers in African Security Affairs

Why it matters

The African continent has experienced a complex array of security challenges over the past decade, ranging from internal conflicts and political instability to the rise of extremist groups and the impacts of climate change. The 10th APSACO 2026 offers a timely opportunity to reflect on these developments and to evaluate the efficacy of various interventions and policies implemented by African nations and their partners.

This conference is particularly important as it seeks to move beyond reactive measures, encouraging a proactive and holistic approach to peace and security. By examining the root causes of instability and exploring innovative solutions, the discussions in Rabat will contribute to shaping the continent's security agenda for the coming years. The outcomes are expected to influence regional cooperation frameworks and national strategies, ultimately aiming to enhance the resilience of African states against diverse threats.

The insights generated from this gathering will be vital for understanding the intricate dynamics at play and for fostering collaborative efforts to build sustainable peace. It underscores the commitment of African leaders and the international community to address these pressing issues collectively, recognizing that peace and security are fundamental prerequisites for development and prosperity.

How to prepare

To effectively engage with the discussions at the 10th APSACO 2026, participants should familiarize themselves with the historical context of peace and security efforts in Africa, particularly over the last decade. Understanding the evolution of various conflicts and the responses to them will provide a strong foundation for contributing to the conference's objectives.

Delegates should also prepare by researching the current geopolitical landscape of the continent, including the roles of key regional organizations and international actors. A comprehensive understanding of the diverse perspectives from different African sub-regions will be crucial for constructive dialogue. Additionally, reviewing successful case studies and lessons learned from past peacebuilding initiatives can inform contributions to policy recommendations.

Consideration of the various stakeholders involved in peace and security processes, including governmental bodies, civil society organizations, and local communities, will enhance the ability to engage in nuanced discussions. Understanding the multifaceted nature of these challenges requires a broad perspective that incorporates political, economic, and social dimensions.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 4 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Morocco

As the host nation, MAR is committed to facilitating discussions on peace and security, highlighting its role in regional stability and counter-terrorism efforts.

Role in topic

MAR plays a pivotal role in regional security, particularly in North Africa and the Sahel. Hosting the 10th APSACO 2026 underscores its commitment to fostering dialogue and cooperation on peace and security issues across the continent. MAR's experiences in counter-terrorism and regional stability initiatives will likely be central to discussions.

Ethiopia

ETH, as the seat of the African Union, is a key player in continental peace and security architecture, advocating for African-led solutions.

Role in topic

As the host country of the African Union, ETH is central to the continent's peace and security architecture. Its perspective will be crucial in discussions about strengthening regional mechanisms and implementing African-led solutions to conflicts. ETH's experiences with internal and regional security challenges provide valuable insights.

Nigeria

NGA, a major economic and military power, is deeply invested in regional stability, particularly in West Africa, and combating extremism.

Role in topic

NGA, as a significant economic and military power in West Africa, has a strong interest in regional stability and combating extremist groups. Its contributions will likely focus on strategies for counter-terrorism, regional security cooperation, and addressing the root causes of instability in its sub-region.

South Africa

ZAF advocates for multilateralism and peaceful resolution of conflicts, often emphasizing socio-economic development as a foundation for lasting peace.

Role in topic

ZAF is a prominent voice for multilateralism and peaceful conflict resolution on the continent. Its perspective often emphasizes the importance of socio-economic development and good governance as foundational elements for sustainable peace and security. ZAF's experience in post-conflict reconstruction and democratic transitions will be relevant.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

African Security Challenges: A Continental Overview

Africa's security landscape has grown markedly more complex since the end of the Cold War, evolving from primarily inter-state and liberation-era conflicts toward a dense web of intra-state wars, insurgencies, transnational crime, and climate-driven instability. The African Union's adoption of the Constitutive Act in 2000 and the launch of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) in 2002 reflected a continental ambition to address these threats collectively, including through the Peace and Security Council, the Continental Early Warning System, and the African Standby Force. Yet implementation has lagged, and the AU's 'Silencing the Guns by 2020' initiative was extended to 2030 after failing to meet its initial targets. Today, the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, the Lake Chad Basin, the Great Lakes, and parts of Southern Africa (notably Cabo Delgado in Mozambique) host overlapping crises. Drivers include weak state penetration in peripheral regions, contested elections, demographic pressure, illicit economies in gold and narcotics, and the spillover of jihadist networks. The convergence of climate stress, food insecurity, and forced displacement — Africa hosts more than 40 million displaced persons — compounds these dynamics and strains both national militaries and regional bodies such as ECOWAS, IGAD, and SADC. The central debate is whether African-led solutions can be adequately financed and operationalized, particularly after UN Security Council Resolution 2719 (2023) opened a pathway to assessed contributions for AU-led peace support operations. Questions of sovereignty, subsidiarity between the AU and Regional Economic Communities, and the appropriate balance between kinetic and developmental responses remain unresolved.

Key players

Terrorism and Violent Extremism in Africa

Africa has become the global epicenter of jihadist violence, according to successive Global Terrorism Index reports, with the Sahel alone accounting for over half of all terrorism-related deaths worldwide in recent years. The trajectory began with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) consolidating in the Sahara in the mid-2000s, the rise of Boko Haram around Lake Chad from 2009, and al-Shabaab's expansion in Somalia after the collapse of the Islamic Courts Union in 2006. The 2012 Libyan state collapse flooded the region with weapons and fighters, accelerating the spread of armed groups across Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, while the Islamic State established affiliates from the Sahel to Mozambique and the eastern DRC (ADF/ISCAP). Counter-terrorism responses have varied. The G5 Sahel Joint Force, France's Operation Barkhane, the EU training missions, AMISOM/ATMIS in Somalia, the MNJTF around Lake Chad, and SADC's SAMIM in Mozambique each produced uneven results. The withdrawal of French forces from Mali (2022), Burkina Faso (2023), and Niger (2023), the dissolution of the G5 Sahel in 2023, and the troubled drawdown of ATMIS in Somalia have created operational vacuums increasingly filled by Russian paramilitary actors and by new sub-regional arrangements such as the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). Debates now center on whether militarized counter-terrorism has produced diminishing returns, how to address grievances rooted in governance and identity politics, and how to handle the question of dialogue with armed groups. Financing of counter-terrorism, regional intelligence sharing through mechanisms like the Nouakchott and Djibouti Processes, and the protection of civilians during operations remain unresolved.

Key players

The Resurgence of Coups d'État in Africa

After two decades of decline, unconstitutional changes of government have returned with striking frequency in Africa. Since 2020, successful coups have occurred in Mali (2020, 2021), Chad (2021, dynastic succession), Guinea (2021), Sudan (2021), Burkina Faso (twice in 2022), Niger (2023), and Gabon (2023), alongside several failed attempts. This 'coup belt' stretching across the Sahel and into Central Africa marks the sharpest reversal of Africa's post-Cold War democratization trend and has tested the AU's 2000 Lomé Declaration and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (2007), which prohibit unconstitutional changes of government. Drivers vary by case but share recurring features: insecurity and military frustration with civilian leadership (notably in the Sahel), elite manipulation of term limits and contested elections, economic grievances, and growing anti-French sentiment that juntas have leveraged for legitimacy. The AU and ECOWAS suspended several states and imposed sanctions, but ECOWAS's threat of military intervention in Niger in 2023 failed to materialize and instead accelerated the formation of the Alliance of Sahel States and the announced withdrawal of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger from ECOWAS in 2024. The debate now concerns the credibility of regional anti-coup norms, the conditions for re-engagement with transitional authorities, the design of realistic transition timelines, and whether external partners — Western, Russian, Gulf, and Chinese — are inadvertently rewarding or punishing coup-makers through their engagement choices.

Key players

Regional Conflicts and Cross-Border Wars

Africa's most destructive contemporary conflicts are increasingly regional rather than purely national. Sudan's war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, which erupted in April 2023, has produced the world's largest displacement crisis with over 10 million people uprooted and has drawn in external sponsors, with consequences cascading into Chad, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic. In the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, the M23 rebellion — which the UN Group of Experts has documented as receiving support from Rwanda — has reignited a Great Lakes crisis recalling the wars of the 1990s, with Burundi, Uganda, and SADC forces all involved. Elsewhere, the Tigray war (2020–2022) left lingering tensions in northern Ethiopia and unresolved Amhara and Oromia insurgencies; Cameroon's Anglophone crisis continues; and the Horn faces fresh strain from Ethiopia's 2024 Memorandum of Understanding with Somaliland on sea access, which Somalia has rejected as a violation of its sovereignty. Maritime insecurity in the Gulf of Guinea and renewed Houthi-driven disruption in the Red Sea further entangle African states in wider conflict systems. At issue is whether existing mechanisms — IGAD on Sudan and the Horn, the East African Community and SADC on the DRC, the AU Peace and Security Council overall — can mediate effectively when regional powers are themselves parties to the conflicts. Questions of arms embargo enforcement (UNSC Resolution 1591 on Sudan), accountability for atrocities, and humanitarian access dominate the agenda.

Key players

Great-Power Geopolitical Rivalries on the Continent

Africa has re-emerged as a theater of great-power competition, with overlapping rivalries between the United States, China, Russia, the European Union, and increasingly Gulf states, Turkey, and India. China's footprint, built since the 2000 launch of FOCAC, combines infrastructure investment under the Belt and Road Initiative with a growing security presence, including its first overseas base in Djibouti (2017) and expanded arms sales. The United States, through AFRICOM (established 2007), the 2022 US–Africa Leaders Summit, and partnership initiatives like Lobito Corridor financing, has sought to reframe its engagement around critical minerals, infrastructure, and counter-terrorism. Russia has expanded influence via diplomatic outreach (the 2019 and 2023 Russia–Africa Summits), arms transfers, and the deployment of the Wagner Group — now reorganized as Africa Corps under the Russian Ministry of Defense — in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, the Central African Republic, and Libya. The Gulf states, particularly the UAE and Saudi Arabia, are deeply engaged in the Horn and Sudan through ports, agriculture, and weapons flows, while Turkey has become a major drone supplier and Türkiye-mediated agreements have shaped both Somali and Ethiopian–Somali diplomacy. For African states, the debate is how to leverage this competition for development gains without being drawn into proxy dynamics, how to preserve strategic autonomy and AU centrality, and how to navigate sanctions regimes and critical-minerals competition that increasingly condition diplomatic relationships.

Key players

Peace Operations in Africa: From UN Missions to AU-Led Deployments

Africa hosts the majority of UN peacekeepers and almost all of the AU's peace support operations, but the model is in profound transition. The closure of MINUSMA in Mali (2023) at the host government's request, the drawdown of MONUSCO in the DRC (begun in 2024), and the planned transition of ATMIS in Somalia signal the end of an era of large multidimensional UN missions on the continent. Host-state pushback, frustration with mandates focused on civilian protection without robust counter-insurgency authority, and the rise of sovereigntist narratives have all eroded the political space for traditional peacekeeping. In parallel, the AU and Regional Economic Communities have taken on heavier kinetic roles — AMISOM/ATMIS in Somalia, MNJTF around Lake Chad, the G5 Sahel Joint Force (now defunct), SAMIM in Mozambique, the EAC Regional Force and SAMIDRC in eastern DRC. UN Security Council Resolution 2719 (December 2023) created, for the first time, a framework allowing AU-led peace support operations to access UN assessed contributions on a case-by-case basis, addressing a long-standing financing gap, though questions of mandate authority, human rights compliance, and burden-sharing remain. Key debates include how to design 'next-generation' missions suited to counter-terrorism and stabilization environments, how to ensure predictable financing under 2719, how to integrate women and civilian protection mandates, and how to manage transitions from international missions to national forces without creating security vacuums.

Key players

Political Instability and Governance Crises

Political instability in Africa today manifests not only in coups but in contested elections, constitutional manipulation to extend presidential terms, urban protest movements, and governance vacuums in peripheral regions. V-Dem and Freedom House have recorded a sustained democratic regression across much of the continent since the mid-2010s, with notable exceptions in Zambia, Malawi, and Senegal where transitions of power have proceeded peacefully. Contested elections in countries such as Kenya (2022), Zimbabwe (2023), the DRC (2023), Mozambique (2024), and various 2024–2025 polls have repeatedly tested institutional resilience. Underlying drivers include the demographic pressure of Africa's youth bulge, with limited employment absorption; rising debt distress, with several countries restructuring under the G20 Common Framework; the corrosive effect of illicit financial flows; and the manipulation of identity politics. Disinformation, often amplified by foreign actors, has further polarized political environments. Civic space has narrowed in many states, even as protest movements — from Sudan's pro-democracy uprising to Kenya's 2024 Gen Z protests — show enduring popular demand for accountability. The core questions concern how regional and continental bodies can credibly defend constitutional order without appearing to defend incumbents; how to support electoral integrity and civic space; and how to address the structural economic and demographic conditions that make instability recurrent.

Key players

Foreign Powers in African Security Affairs

Foreign military and security engagement in Africa has diversified rapidly. France's Sahel posture, anchored by Operations Serval (2013) and Barkhane (2014–2022), has collapsed following expulsions from Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, and Senegal between 2022 and 2024. The United States lost its Niger drone bases at Agadez in 2024 and has consolidated counter-terrorism activities in Djibouti and selected partners. China maintains its Djibouti base and is expanding security cooperation, training, and arms exports while remaining cautious about overt combat roles. Russia, through Africa Corps, has stepped into vacuums left by Western forces, particularly in the Sahel and CAR, providing regime protection in exchange for resource concessions and political alignment. Gulf states have become consequential security actors: the UAE and Saudi Arabia compete for influence on the Red Sea littoral and are implicated in the Sudanese conflict through alleged support to opposing parties. Turkey has become a leading drone supplier and signed defense agreements from Somalia to Niger, while Iran is rebuilding ties through arms transfers. India and Japan, through the Indo-Pacific framing and TICAD respectively, are seeking expanded but largely non-kinetic roles. The EU has pivoted toward training missions, the European Peace Facility, and migration-linked security cooperation. The central question for African states and the AU is how to set the terms of foreign engagement — under the AU's 2022 Common African Defence and Security Policy review and the principle of African ownership — rather than be the object of competing strategies. Debates focus on basing rights, mercenary regulation under the 1977 OAU Convention, arms embargo compliance, and conditionalities attached to military assistance.

Key players

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Morocco June 2026

By committee

Frequently asked questions

10th African Peace and Security Annual Conference (APSACO) 2026

Jun 11, 2026Rabat, MoroccoIn-person

Registration open

Committees & topics

Topics
African Security Challenges: A Continental Overview · Terrorism and Violent Extremism in Africa · The Resurgence of Coups d'État in Africa · Regional Conflicts and Cross-Border Wars · Great-Power Geopolitical Rivalries on the Continent · Peace Operations in Africa: From UN Missions to AU-Led Deployments · Political Instability and Governance Crises · Foreign Powers in African Security Affairs

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 4 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Morocco

As the host nation, MAR is committed to facilitating discussions on peace and security, highlighting its role in regional stability and counter-terrorism efforts.

Role in topic

Ethiopia

ETH, as the seat of the African Union, is a key player in continental peace and security architecture, advocating for African-led solutions.

Role in topic

Nigeria

NGA, a major economic and military power, is deeply invested in regional stability, particularly in West Africa, and combating extremism.

Role in topic

South Africa

ZAF advocates for multilateralism and peaceful resolution of conflicts, often emphasizing socio-economic development as a foundation for lasting peace.

Role in topic