Good news from Guinea-Bissau

We don’t write about Guinea-Bissau. T is never in the news. It’s one of those lost lands, somewhere in the map of Africa. Some better-informed people know the country is very undeveloped and that poverty has been compounded by serious political turmoil for over twenty years. And that’s about it.

But this time, the news coming from Bissau is encouraging. The country went through general elections this past Sunday. The process was credible enough. And a governing coalition is taking shape.

I can only hope that this will bring the much-needed political stability Guinea-Bissau needs. And I leave here a word of support.  

Guinea-Bissau is down the rocks once more

Guinea-Bissau is again on the rocks. Last night the President decided to fire the government. This was an unjustified decision – and dramatically wrong from the constitutional and political perspectives – as this government had shown to be committed to bring the country out of two decades of a deep national crisis. This was actually a well performing government that had been commended by the donor group of countries at a recent meeting in Brussels.

I was in discussion today about the new situation over there. And my opinion was very clear. If you want to understand the President and his mistakes, please get in touch with his marabout. Like many powerful men in West Africa, the President is pretty insignificant in front of his marabout. The holy man dictates the President´s actions. 

Guinea-Bissau

One of the forgotten countries is Guinea-Bissau, in West Africa. It has been in and out of crisis for the last seventeen years or so. Furthermore, it’s a tiny country with very little strategic interest. It was therefore easy to ignore it and to be blind to the plight of its population.

In Brussels today, after many years of hesitation, there has been a donors ‘meeting on Guinea-Bissau. The preliminary outcome is encouraging. The door for re-engagement has been open. The next step is to make sure that the commitments made by both sides, the government and the external partners, are indeed implemented. So often, these undertakings remain unfulfilled or are to slow to implement. And the blame game starts.

Let´s hope this time we will see a faster move. The people of Guinea-Bissau would certainly deserve it. 

Critical peace issues

I had a long discussion today about the current impact of the UN missions on peace and security. It all started with a silent crisis, Guinea-Bissau. Nobody talks about that country and the lasting disaster that has been around for so long. That is a DPA-led mission, meaning, the UN department of Political Affairs has the responsibility to guide the UN presence on the ground and report to the Security Council on a regular basis. Then, we looked at Cote d´Ivoire, where we have had a peacekeeping operation for quite some time. There is very little progress, I would say in a very diplomatic language, as far as domestic reconciliation is concerned. Next to it there is a UN peacekeeping presence in Liberia. The country has been struggling to rebuild itself, after many years of civil war and wanton destruction. There are now some serious issues of governance. Are we addressing them?

And we moved on, to the Central African Republic, South Sudan and Mali, not to mention the work of the UN missions in Libya and elsewhere. And the same question came out a number of times? Are we addressing the key issues?

The point is very simple. In all these situations, conflicts can come back, sooner or later, if we are not able to deal with the critical causes of instability. And in some cases, it is even worse. We are simply not able to help the countries to move out of the swamp.