COMMUNIQUÉ

Adopted by the Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union (AU) at its 1298^th meeting held on 27 August 2025 on the Briefing on the Continental Early Warning System (CEWS) “Mapping Risks and Threats.

The Peace and Security Council,

Recalling the Protocol Establishing the PSC of the AU, particularly articles 7 and 12 on early warning and early action; the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA); the Agenda 2063 (Aspiration 4); the AU Master Roadmap of Practical Steps to Silence the Guns in Africa by 2030; and other relevant decisions on counter-terrorism, maritime security, unconstitutional changes of government (UCGs), transnational organized crime, cyber threats, and disinformation;

 

Also recalling previous decisions and pronouncements on CEWS, particularly Communiqué [PSC/PR/COMM.1208 (2024)] adopted at the 1208^th Meeting held on 16 April 2024, on the Joint Briefing by Committee of Intelligence and Security Services in Africa (CISSA), African Union Counter Terrorism Centre (AUCTC) and the AFRIPOL on unblocking obstacles to effective CEWS underscoring the imperative of a robust and fully functional CEWS to effectively pre-empt and mitigate conflicts; and Communiqué  [PSC/PR/COMM.1274 (2025)] adopted at its 1274^th meeting held on 16 April 2025 on consideration of the Conclusions of the Fourth Joint Retreat of the AU PSC and the Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) held from 7 to 8 April 2025 which, among others, emphasized the importance of integrating structural prevention mechanisms, such as early warning tools and resilience assessments, into governance strategies at both national and continental levels, ensuring they inform public policy formulation and decision-making processes;

Taking note of the opening remarks by H.E. Dr. Ambassador Mohamed KHALED, Permanent Representative of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria to the AU and Chairperson of the PSC of the AU for August 2025; and the introductory remarks by H.E. Ambassador Bankole Adeoye, Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security;

Also taking note of the presentations by H.E. Ambassador Marie-Antoinette Rose QUATRE, Chief Executive Officer of the APRM; by Mr. Lallali Idris Lakhdar, Acting Director, AU CTC; and by Mr. Maxwell Yaw Kumah, Principal Researcher and Analyst of the CISSA

Further taking note of the statements by the Representatives of the African Regional Standby Forces of the Commission of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS); and the Northern Africa Regional Capability (NARC), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC); and

Acting under Article 7 of its Protocol, the Peace and Security Council:

1. Commends the AUCTC, CEWS, AFRIPOL, CISSA, APRM RECs/RMs and Member States for continued cooperation and collaboration on CEWS;

2. Underscores the imperative for policy coherence across institutions to ensure that different institutions and agencies coordinate their efforts to achieve consistent and mutually reinforcing policy goals; in light of that, calls for a more coherent and integrated approach across AU Institutions, Member States, and RECs/RMs in dealing with security risks by establishing strong governance, coordination mechanisms, and information exchange systems to prevent conflicts and inefficiencies, promote synergies in full respect to AU policies and their respective mandates;

3. Underlines the need to AU’s risk capacity to anticipate risks through the CEWS, and to ensure that its analysis directly informs PSC agenda-setting and deliberations, with a view to improving early warning analysis, real-time monitoring, and crisis foresight by integrating advanced data-gathering, analytical tools, and collaborative frameworks to enable timely detection, assessment, and prevention of threats across the continent;

4. Recognizes the existing gap between early warning-early action which undermines conflict prevention efforts by delaying responses and need to be addressed by strengthening the CEWS, enhancing joint analysis and scenario planning, and fostering greater buy-in and cooperation among Member States and RECs/RMs to facilitate concrete preventive measures; in this respect, stresses the imperative to bridging the early warning-early action gap critical for the PSC, AU institutions, and Member States to take timely, evidence-informed preventive actions against threats like conflict, terrorism, and organized crime;

5. Strongly rejects all forms of foreign interference in the internal affairs of African Union Member states that fuel conflicts on the continent; and urges external actors to put an end to such practices;

6. Condemns all acts of terrorism and violent extremism, as well as the exploitation of communities and the use of illicit economies by armed groups; in this regard pays tribute to the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in the frontlines in the fight against terrorism and violent extremism; and in this context, encourages continued technical cooperation on urgent counter-terrorism matters with countries under AU suspension due to UCGs, strictly to mitigate shared security threats and create conditions for a return to constitutional order, in line with AU norms;

7. Underscores the importance of preserving the national state and its institutions and respecting the principle of “the Primary Responsibility of the State” and the central role of its national law-enforcement institutions within the context of combating terrorism and extremism;

8. Stress the need to combat all terrorist organisations without exceptions, and underlines the necessity of ensuring accountability for those who sponsor or support them, including by providing safe havens, arms and training to” foreign terrorist fighters”;

9. Stresses the need to develop Continental Security Outlook as a strategic planning tool directly feeding into the PSE calendar and guiding preventive diplomacy and mediation initiatives and underline the institutionalization of a biannual or annual Continental Security Outlook report, jointly produced by relevant AU structures, as a strategic planning and advocacy tool; and also stresses the need to establish a CEWS–AUCTC Joint Analytical Cell (JAC) in order to fuse political-governance analysis with operational intelligence which would include (i) Quarterly Continental Security Outlooks with geo-visuals; (ii) Convergence Alerts when multi-risk thresholds are crossed; and (iii) concise Crisis Decision Notes formatted for PSC action);

10. Underscores the importance of integrating AUCTC’s Terrorism Monitoring and Analysis System (TMAS) into the CEWS dashboard which would enable country-specific PSC session be informed by an interactive, layered threats and risks cartographic briefing;

11. Underlines the need to strengthen CEWS and encourages the enhancement of coordination between CEWS and RECs/RMs, in line with the subsidiarity and complementarity of principles of APSA, with clear sequencing of actions to avoid overlaps and ensure coherence, and institutionalize regular security mapping exercises, and consultation meeting between PSC and RMs; in this respect, requests the AU Commission to work closely with the RECs/RMs and the APRM in developing a clear protocol on Integrated Preventive Diplomacy and Action addressing the subsidiarity principle paradox, which will clarify the roles, and sequencing of action, fulfilling the spirit of the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in the Area of Peace and Security between the AU, the RECs/RMs;

12. Acknowledges the importance of good governance for conflict prevention as it addresses the root causes of conflict by ensuring transparency, accountability, inclusivity, and the rule of law, which can prevent tensions from escalating into violent conflict; in this regard, underlines the need of promoting good governance through initiatives like strengthening institutions, fostering citizen participation, and promoting equitable access to services is essential for creating a stable and peaceful society;

13. Underscores the importance for Member states to take into consideration the APRM recommendations on governance; and requests the APRM to support the PSC foundational governance pillars of peace by undertaking a technical mapping of all existing peace agreements, using AU governance benchmarks to identify convergences, divergences, and unimplemented decisions; as well as developing and action-oriented roadmap to address those issues for the consideration of the PSC;

14. Expresses serious concerns that illicit financial flows and all kinds of financial theft, including crypto-currency thefts by malicious cyber actors have reached unprecedented levels; in this regard, welcomes the adoption of the non-binding Guiding Principles on preventing, detecting and disrupting the use of new and emerging financial technologies for terrorist purposes as adopted by the UN Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee in January 2025, referred to as “Algerian Guiding Principles” and encourages Member States to adhere to these principles;

15. Requests the AU Commission to coordinate the operationalization within existing resources and structures of a Continental Illicit-Finance Task Force in partnership with all relevant regional institutions and mechanisms to: (i) map hawala/mobile-money nodes exploited by terrorists extremists groups and networks; (ii) set crypto-VASP compliance baselines; (iii) run joint financial-intelligence operations on extractives smuggling; and (iv) launch a rapid cross-border alert protocol for suspicious transfers tied to convergence zones;

16. Reiterates its request for the AU Commission, APRM and the RECs/RMs to finalize a comprehensive coordination mechanism on Country Structural Vulnerability and Resilience Assessment (CSVRA) and Country Structural Mitigation strategies (CSVMS) and submit to the PSC by December 2025;

17. Welcomes the establishment of a Continental Security Cartography as a decision-support tool for prevention and early action, and directs the AU Commission, together with AUCTC, AFRIPOL, CISSA and APRM to establish and institutionalize by December 2025 a dynamic and continuously updated risk mapping tool to allow the PSC to strengthen its ability to engage in early warning for early action, by providing a consolidated picture of threats, vulnerabilities, and potential triggers, including color-coded risk levels linked to a pre-authorized menu of diplomatic, security and stabilization tools; an annual review of acted/missed alerts with lessons-learned;

18. Encourages Member States’ compliance with AU decisions and recommendations through regular reporting, and by fostering better communication and joint mechanisms with other AU organs and regional bodies;

19. Requests the AU Commission to urgently engage with relevant international partners, with a view to integrating RECs and RMs in AU- partner financing frameworks in support of their actions, particularly in the area of early warning collaboration;

20. Further Requests the AU Commission to provide regular updates to the PSC on the progress of implementation of this Communiqué; and

21. Decides to remain actively seized of the matter.

COMMENTS