Annual Joint Consultative Meeting between UN Security Council Members and the AU Peace and Security Council
Council members will hold their 19th annual joint consultative meeting with the African Union Peace and Security Council (AUPSC) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Friday (17 October). This meeting will be preceded tomorrow (16 October) by the tenth informal joint seminar of the Security Council and the AUPSC. Somalia, as the chair of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Conflict Prevention and Resolution in Africa, and Russia, in its capacity as October’s Council President, are the co-leads of the Council’s visit to Addis Ababa.
Security Council experts arrived in Addis Ababa on Sunday (12 October) to meet their AUPSC counterparts and negotiate the draft outcome document of the consultative meeting. The rest of the Council delegation—comprising Permanent Representatives, Deputy Permanent Representatives, and Political Coordinators—arrived in Addis Ababa today (15 October).
Tomorrow, prior to the informal joint seminar, Council members will hold a meeting with Special Representative of the Secretary-General to the AU and Head of the UN Office to the African Union (UNOAU) Parfait Onanga-Anyanga and Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Horn of Africa Guang Cong, who recently assumed his responsibilities following his appointment in July. They are also expected to hold meetings at the AU Headquarters with AU Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf and other senior AU officials. In addition, a meeting with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali is scheduled, pending final confirmation.
Security Council experts began their work on Tuesday (14 October) with a review of the draft agenda for the consultative meeting and the informal seminar, which the AUPSC sent to the Security Council on 16 September. Council experts engaged in back-and-forth discussions before agreeing on a revised version, which was subsequently shared with the AUPSC last week. While Council members apparently hoped that their revisions would be accepted, the AUPSC introduced further changes to the draft agenda, prompting additional discussions. The agenda was eventually agreed upon today after one outstanding issue was resolved.
In the meantime, Council members have been working on the outcome document to be adopted at the conclusion of the joint annual consultations. On Tuesday, they received a draft communiqué proposed by the AUPSC. Council members discussed the draft among themselves before beginning negotiations with their AUPSC counterparts. These negotiations are expected to continue until Thursday morning.
Informal Joint Seminar
Thursday’s joint seminar aims to facilitate informal exchanges between the two Councils on selected thematic issues. One session will focus on the women, peace and security (WPS) agenda. It will discuss the 25th anniversary of the adoption of resolution 1325 of 31 October 2000—the first of ten Security Council resolutions on WPS—and explore ways to enhance UN-AU cooperation in promoting the agenda. The Security Council held its annual open debate on WPS on 6 October, during which member states reflected on the achievements and challenges of promoting the agenda in the past 25 years. (For more information, see our 3 October What’s in Blue story.) The AUPSC is also expected to hold an open session on the issue on 28 October.
The two Councils will also discuss ways to combat terrorism. They may reiterate their support for regional strategies for the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin aimed at addressing the structural drivers of conflict in these regions. The AUPSC has been working to fully operationalise its Sub-Committee on Counter-Terrorism and could draw lessons from the Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) and other subsidiary bodies dealing with the issue.
The AUPSC had apparently proposed including Somalia and the financing of the AU Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) on the informal joint seminar’s agenda. For their part, Security Council members proposed an agenda item on “enhancing and supporting AU-led peace support operations (AUPSOs)”, which would have provided a broad framework for both Councils to discuss AUSSOM’s funding. However, AUPSC members apparently insisted on a specific agenda item on “the deployment of AUSSOM” to be discussed during the consultative meeting instead of the informal seminar. While Security Council members appeared to be open to this, how to reflect the agenda item apparently became a sticking point. It seems that Somalia suggested “enhancing and supporting AUPSOs, including AUSSOM”, whereas AUPSC members appeared to prefer “enhancing and supporting AUPSOS, particularly AUSSOM”. Eventually, Somalia agreed to the AUPSC’s proposal, and a session on “enhancing and supporting AUPSOS, particularly AUSSOM” is included on the agenda of the joint consultative meeting.
Although the US has voiced strong opposition at the Security Council to the financing of AUSSOM through UN assessed contributions, the AU has continued to pursue funding while the mission’s personnel have continued to operate without allowances for the past 15 months. In a 3 July meeting, the AUPSC underscored the need to intensify efforts to secure funding for AUSSOM and instructed the AU Commission (the regional organisation’s secretariat) to engage the UN, as well as bilateral and multilateral partners, to convene a resource mobilisation conference. In line with this directive, a high-level meeting on AUSSOM financing was held in New York on 25 September on the sidelines of the General Debate of the 80th session of the UN General Assembly. However, the total amount pledged remains significantly below the $196 million required to cover troop allowances.
Beyond the funding of AUSSOM, the financing of AUPSOs has been a recurring issue on the agenda of the two Councils. This year, both Councils appear interested in following up on the implementation of resolution 2719 of 21 December 2023 on the financing of AUPSOs, including exploring other potential cases that could be considered within this framework. On 7 October, Assistant Secretary-General for Africa in the Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations (DPPA-DPO) Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee briefed Security Council members during their annual meeting on UN-AU cooperation. The Secretary-General is expected to submit his annual report on the implementation of resolution 2719 in December. In line with the provisions of this resolution, the Security Council is expected to review its implementation in 2026, three years after its adoption.
Joint Consultative Meeting
The agenda for Friday’s consultative meeting will address several regional files. It will feature a session on the situations in the Sahel region and the Lake Chad Basin, including technical assistance to the countries of the Gulf of Guinea in countering challenges affecting maritime security. One likely focus of the session is how to address the root causes of the growing threat of terrorism in these regions. The Security Council addressed developments in these regions in June and August. (For more information, see the briefs in our June and August 2025 Monthly Forecasts.) On 30 September, the AUPSC held a ministerial-level meeting on the situation in the Sahel. In June, it also considered the activities of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), a regional security coalition mandated to combat Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) in the Lake Chad Basin.
The consultative meeting will also discuss the situation in the Horn of Africa, including Sudan and South Sudan. How to stop the devastating war in Sudan through the concerted efforts of the UN, the AU, and other relevant stakeholders is likely to be a major preoccupation for the two Councils. One Security Council member had apparently proposed adding a trip to the country following the visit to Addis Ababa. Although this was not feasible, including because of the short notice for implementing this suggestion, other Council members appeared receptive to the proposal, which could potentially be considered in the future.
In light of the unfolding political and security crisis in South Sudan, salvaging the 2018 Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS) and preventing further instability in the country is a key priority for both Councils. AUPSC members visited South Sudan in August amid these worrying developments. During Friday’s consultative meeting, AUPSC members may elaborate on their discussions with South Sudanese authorities and representatives of regional and international actors. On 7 October, the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC) held an extraordinary meeting in Juba to address the growing challenges facing the R-ARCSS and the escalating political and security tensions in the country. The RJMEC’s Interim Chairperson, Major General (Retired) George Aggrey Owinow, expressed serious concern over widespread violations of the agreement and warned of the increasing risk of South Sudan relapsing into conflict.
Another expected focus of the consultative meeting is developments in the Great Lakes region, particularly the situation in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Regarding the situation in eastern DRC, a key area of discussion between the two Councils could be bridging the gap between progress in ongoing mediation efforts—such as the signing of the 27 June peace agreement between the DRC and Rwanda, and the April declaration issued jointly by the Congolese government and the Mouvement du 23 Mars (M23) rebel group—and the deteriorating security conditions on the ground. The other issue may be how to ensure coordination and harmonisation of the various mediation efforts, including those spearheaded by the US and Qatar as well as others under the auspices of the AU and its regional mechanisms.
