Mahama urges Africa to finance its own peace operations, curb illicit financial flows

President John Mahama has called on African countries to take greater responsibility for financing their own peace operations, curbing illicit financial flows and building technological resilience, insisting that the continent must take charge of its own security and development.

Addressing the 12th Tana High-Level Forum on Peace in Africa in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, President Mahama said Africa must reduce its dependence on external funding and strengthen its capacity to respond to security threats.

“From financing our own peace operations through the AU Peace Fund to curbing illicit financial flows and building homegrown technological resilience, we must author and fund our destiny ourselves,” he said.

President Mahama said Africa’s reliance on external funding for peace operations left the continent vulnerable to decisions taken by foreign governments.

He cited the transition from the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) to the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM), which he said required about 190 million dollars annually, while the AU Peace Fund could barely muster 20 million dollars.

He warned that when funding decisions are taken outside Africa, African countries have limited influence over decisions affecting their own security.

“That is not an African solution to African problems. That is external dependency disguised in an African beret. We must fund our own peace,” he said.

He also challenged African leaders to move beyond signing agreements and frameworks that are not fully implemented.

He cited Agenda 2063, the African Peace and Security Architecture and the “Silencing the Guns” initiative as examples of continental frameworks whose objectives require stronger implementation.

“Our problem is not the ink on the paper; it is the courage of our execution,” he said.

President Mahama called on the African Union and regional bodies to assess political commitment honestly, identify failures to comply with agreements and hold member states accountable for their pledges.

He also urged governments to implement signed protocols, ratify agreements on the free movement of people, fund their peace budgets and strengthen governance beyond national capitals.

Presenting the 2026 State of Peace and Security in Africa Report, covering January 2025 to June 2026, President Mahama argued that the continent’s security challenges cannot be resolved by focusing solely on weapons, military capacity and armed groups.

“The real disease is mostly in the arena of political economy,” he said, urging African leaders to examine who controls the continent’s natural resources, who benefits from their extraction and whose interests are served by continued instability.

He cited conflicts in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the activities of Al-Shabaab in Somalia and tensions in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado region as examples of how resource exploitation, weak governance and the marginalisation of local communities can contribute to insecurity.

In Sudan, he said, the conflict is linked not only to battles over Khartoum but also to gold extraction sites. In eastern DRC, he linked the resurgence of the M23 group to coltan, cobalt and the global competition for minerals needed for the green energy transition.

“These are not separate, random brushfires. They are symptoms of a single, continent-wide firestorm,” President Mahama said.He warned that competition for African resources was being intensified by a polarised global environment in which external powers were seeking influence and access across the continent.

“Africa is not an empty chessboard for foreign powers to play their games. We are not spectators,” he said, calling for African countries to exercise greater control over their strategic assets and negotiate fairer terms for their exploitation.

“Real sovereignty means having the administrative, legal, and economic power to govern your strategic assets, negotiate fair terms, and ensure the wealth beneath our people's feet actually puts food on their tables,” he added.