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7th Edition of APSACO to Discuss ‘Post-Conflict Reconstruction’ in Africa

The Policy Center for the New South will organize the 7th edition of the African Peace and Security Annual Conference (APSACO) in Rabat on July 10-11. (Twitter)
The Policy Center for the New South will organize the 7th edition of the African Peace and Security Annual Conference (APSACO) in Rabat on July 10-11. (Twitter)
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7th Edition of APSACO to Discuss ‘Post-Conflict Reconstruction’ in Africa

The Policy Center for the New South will organize the 7th edition of the African Peace and Security Annual Conference (APSACO) in Rabat on July 10-11. (Twitter)
The Policy Center for the New South will organize the 7th edition of the African Peace and Security Annual Conference (APSACO) in Rabat on July 10-11. (Twitter)

The Policy Center for the New South will organize the 7th edition of the African Peace and Security Annual Conference (APSACO) in Rabat on July 10-11 under the theme “Post-Conflict Reconstruction in Africa”.

The conference provides a platform for the analysis of Africa’s peace and security structures and institutions by focusing on the continent’s assets, history, and ability to overcome current challenges.

It will be attended by Catherine Samba-Panza, former President of the Central African Republic, Mohamed El-Amine Souef, Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Sandra Adong Oder, Head of Post-conflict Reconstruction and Development Unit, the African Union, and others.

Badreddine El Harti, Director, of Security Institutions Service United Nations Support Mission in Libya, and Ruby Sandhu-Rojon, Senior Counsel, Hamilton-Advisors Inc, will also attend.

A statement from APSACO said Africa seeks to provide a policy framework for reconstruction, adding that the African Union adopted a political framework for reconstruction and development after the post-conflict phase in 2006, and the establishment of the African Solidarity Initiative (ASI) in July 2012 to coordinate continental financial contributions to the program.

The PCRD review workshop, organized by the AU Peace and Security Commission (PSC) in Accra, in September 2022, proposes a better-tailored understanding that is more adapted to the new challenges.

These realities are not only limited to the changing nature of crises but also to the issues of financing, the new forms of partnerships, among others.

Thirty experts are expected at this year’s conference, including Ahmed Abdel-Latif, Ambassador, Director-General, the Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping, and Peacebuilding (CCCPA); Frank Hanson, Air Vice Marshall, Gulf of Guinea Maritime Institute; Abu Bakarr Bah, Presidential Research Professor, Northern Illinois University; and Margaret Janes-Lucas, Regional Director – Sahel, Tony Blair Institute.

Moreover, an annual report on Africa’s geopolitics will be issued led by Abdelhak Bassou, Senior Fellow, Policy Center for the New South, on July 11.

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Arab World

Italy’s Foreign Minister Heads to Syria to Encourage Post-Assad Transition

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks to the media a he arrives for a meeting at Rome’s Villa Madama, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025 on the situation in Syria after the collapse of the Assad regime. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini (Andrew Medichini/AP POOL)
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks to the media a he arrives for a meeting at Rome’s Villa Madama, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025 on the situation in Syria after the collapse of the Assad regime. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini (Andrew Medichini/AP POOL)
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Italy’s Foreign Minister Heads to Syria to Encourage Post-Assad Transition

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks to the media a he arrives for a meeting at Rome’s Villa Madama, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025 on the situation in Syria after the collapse of the Assad regime. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini (Andrew Medichini/AP POOL)
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks to the media a he arrives for a meeting at Rome’s Villa Madama, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025 on the situation in Syria after the collapse of the Assad regime. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini (Andrew Medichini/AP POOL)

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said he would travel to Syria on Friday to encourage the country's transition following the ouster of President Bashar Assad by insurgents, and appealed on Europe to review its sanctions on Damascus now that the political situation has changed.
Tajani presided over a meeting in Rome on Thursday of foreign ministry officials from five countries, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the United States.
The aim, he said, is to coordinate the various post-Assad initiatives, with Italy prepared to make proposals on private investments in health care for the Syrian population.
Going into the meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and their European counterparts, Tajani said it was critical that all Syrians be recognized with equal rights. It was a reference to concerns about the rights of Christians and other minorities under Syria’s new de facto authorities of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HT.
“The first messages from Damascus have been positive. That’s why I’m going there tomorrow, to encourage this new phase that will help stabilize the international situation,” Tajani said.
Speaking to reporters, he said the European Union should discuss possible changes to its sanctions on Syria. “It’s an issue that should be discussed because Assad isn’t there anymore, it’s a new situation, and I think that the encouraging signals that are arriving should be further encouraged,” he said.
Syria has been under deeply isolating sanctions by the US, the European Union and others for years as a result of Assad’s brutal response to what began as peaceful anti-government protests in 2011 and spiraled into civil war.
HTS led a lightning insurgency that ousted Assad on Dec. 8 and ended his family’s decades-long rule. From 2011 until Assad’s downfall, Syria’s uprising and civil war killed an estimated 500,000 people.
The US has gradually lifted some penalties since Assad departed Syria for protection in Russia. The Biden administration in December decided to drop a $10 million bounty it had offered for the capture of a Syrian opposition leader whose forces led the ouster of Assad last month.
Syria’s new leaders also have been urged to respect the rights of minorities and women. Many Syrian Christians, who made up 10% of the population before Syria’s civil war, either fled the country or supported Assad out of fear of insurgents.