Africa must shift from managing conflicts after they erupt to preventing them in the first place, the Deputy Commandant of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), Brigadier General Lawrence Deku, has said.
Speaking as the Keynote Speaker at the 2026 General Assembly and Induction Ceremony of the Association of Conflict, Peace and Security Experts in Africa (ACPSEA) in Accra last Saturday, Brig. Gen. Deku said despite the continent's expanding economies and deepening regional integration, gains were being undermined by food insecurity, political instability, violent extremism, maritime insecurity and climate-driven threats to livelihoods and social cohesion.
He added that peace and security practice had long focused on managing conflicts through peacekeeping, enforcement and mediation.
He, therefore, called for greater investment in understanding the root causes and prevention mechanisms capable of sustaining durable peace.
General Assembly
The General Assembly was on the theme: "From Conflict to Cooperation: Enhancing Peace, Security and Sustainable Development in Africa".
In all, 77 people were inducted into the association.
Out of this number, 42 were inducted as members, 24 as fellows and 11 as honorary fellows.
Brig. Gen. Deku said African Union frameworks such as Agenda 2063, the African Continental Free Trade Area and "Silencing the Guns", now extended to 2030, reflected growing political will towards cooperative approaches, alongside the gradual rollout of the African Peace and Security Architecture, including regional standby forces and early warning systems.
"I urge practitioners to move from individual expertise to collective intelligence and from isolated interventions to collaborative problem-solving," he said.
He advocated that local communities, traditional authorities, women, youth, religious leaders and civil society be recognised as active partners rather than mere beneficiaries of security interventions.
He also charged newly inducted members to build cross-disciplinary partnerships that would position the association as a platform for shaping continental policy.
Association
ACPSEA Founder and President Isaac Asare said the association belonged to all its members, describing it as a shared platform for mediators, negotiators, peacebuilders, security experts and academics committed to peaceful societies.
He linked the association's work to Sustainable Development Goal 16 on peace, justice and strong institutions, describing it as foundational to other development goals, and said Africa's trade integration agenda could not succeed without effective dispute resolution and secure trade corridors.
On Ghana's religious tolerance, Mr Asare appealed to religious leaders to use their influence responsibly and condemned any use of religion to incite hatred, commending the Inspector General of Police for recent engagement with religious leaders.
For her part, ACPSEA's Country Coordinator for Ghana, Kezia Kenneth Azumah, called for a shift from conflict management to conflict prevention, urging investment in early warning systems and mediation to address root causes such as poverty, inequality and youth unemployment.
