African Union foreign ministers gathered in Luanda on Saturday for the opening of an extraordinary summit on conflict prevention, as the continent confronts its worst stretch of simultaneous wars in decades.
The 26th Extraordinary Session of the AU Executive Council began deliberations at the Intercontinental Hotel in Luanda, with foreign ministers and senior officials from across the continent tasked with reviewing draft decisions on how to overhaul the bloc’s stuttering peace and security machinery. Heads of state are scheduled to meet on Sunday at the Luanda Convention Palace to adopt the final package.
The two-day summit, formally titled the 21st Extraordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union on the Strengthening of Mechanisms for Conflict Prevention and Resolution in Africa, was convened at the initiative of Angolan President Joao Lourenco in his capacity as AU Champion for Peace and Reconciliation. Angola is hosting the meeting as the initiator, not as the sitting chair of the Union, having handed the rotating chairmanship to Burundi in February.
Why the Summit Matters Now
The urgency is difficult to overstate. Africa currently hosts more active armed conflicts than any other continent, with the Sudan civil war entering its fourth year, the M23 rebellion destabilising eastern DRC, and a transnational jihadist insurgency sweeping the Sahel across Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. Additional flashpoints include Somalia’s war against al-Shabaab and the IS-linked insurgency in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province.
In Sudan alone, the war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has displaced 8.6 million people since April 2023. More than 19.5 million people are acutely food insecure, according to the World Food Programme, and seasonal flooding has compounded the emergency by destroying shelters in displacement camps across North Darfur. The UN Security Council held a dedicated briefing on Sudan just five days ago, with officials warning of mass killings, abductions and widespread sexual violence.
What the Summit Will Decide
Delegates are considering a draft Luanda Decision, an accompanying Action Plan, and an Implementation Matrix that together would represent the most significant overhaul of the African Peace and Security Architecture since its creation. The Permanent Representatives Committee, the body of member-state ambassadors that prepares summits, reviewed all three documents by videoconference on 25 August. None had been finalised as of that date.
The Implementation Matrix is the document analysts are watching most closely. It is described as setting out operational measures, objectives, timelines and responsible entities, which is the component that continental declarations have historically lacked. A February AU decision explicitly called for the Luanda summit to produce “concrete, measurable and time-bound deliverables, rather than a declarative forum.”
The assessment underpinning the Luanda Decision covers two frameworks: the African Peace and Security Architecture, built around the Peace and Security Council, the Continental Early Warning System and the Panel of the Wise; and the African Governance Architecture, its political counterpart. Both are seen as underperforming relative to the scale of the crises they were designed to address.
Angola’s Mediating Role
Luanda has positioned itself at the centre of continental peace efforts through the so-called Luanda Process, a mediation initiative led by Lourenco aimed at finding a political solution to the DRC-Rwanda conflict. The AU has formally recognised Angola’s role in mediating between Kinshasa and Kigali, and the country has consistently advocated for African-led solutions grounded in dialogue and consultation.
Angola hosted the Luanda Financing Summit for Africa’s infrastructure in October 2025, and this gathering marks its second major continental convening in under a year. For a country whose fiscal position has deteriorated in 2026, the investment signals a deliberate bid for continental diplomatic standing.
The Risk of Another Talk Shop
The Institute for Security Studies, a South African think tank, has called the summit “an honest admission by African leaders” that the current machinery is struggling. The ISS cautioned, however, that the gathering must not become another round of empty declarations, noting that 18 extraordinary AU sessions since 2004 have produced more communiques than results.
The challenge is not only diplomatic but financial. The AU’s Peace Fund, established to finance continental peace operations, has struggled to meet its targets, and several regional forces, including the multinational joint task force combating Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin, have relied heavily on external funding. Coordinating with regional economic blocs such as ECOWAS, the East African Community and the Southern African Development Community remains fragmented.
What Comes Next
The summit’s outcomes will feed into the 8th Mid-Year Coordination Meeting between the AU and regional economic communities, scheduled for 4 October in Egypt. That gathering will test whether the Luanda Decision translates into the kind of coordinated action that has eluded the continent for years.
More than 10 African heads of state are expected to attend Sunday’s session. The question facing them is whether the bloc can match its words with the institutional reforms and financing commitments needed to prevent the next conflict before it begins.
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