Africa subject of 80 per cent of UN Security Council resolutions over last decade, despite exclusion from permanent seat

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Since 2016, conflicts in Africa have claimed millions of lives, forced nearly 46 million people from their homes – more than four times a decade ago - and pushed 120 million people across 26 African countries into hunger. Yet African representation in critical decisions concerning its security and future is minimal. Last week, The Independent exclusively reported how Oxfam urged African leaders at the 39th African Union summit in Addis Ababa to demand for a meaningful reform within the UN Security Council.

Oxfam found that conflicts across Africa have dominated UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions over the last decade, totalling a staggering 80 per cent, despite no African country having a permanent seat on the Council.

Last year alone, nearly 45% of the resolutions adopted by the UNSC -20 out of 44 resolutions- explicitly focused on an African country or situations in Africa. Of these 20 resolutions, 18 authorised sanctions, peacekeeping or military action.

Oxfam’s briefing note “Africa’s rightful seat: from vetoing humanity to a just multilateral order”, highlights Africa’s exclusion from permanent representation at the UN Security Council and calls for urgent multilateral reform.

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“Many of the world’s most deadly and protracted conflicts are taking place in Africa, yet the continent continues to be denied a permanent seat at the table, underscoring a long-standing imbalance in global decision-making on peace and security. “Without the right voices being heard, resolutions are being passed that are not implementable and are out of touch with what people need or want.””

Fati N'zi-Hassane, Oxfam in Africa Director

Scherazade Bouabid/Oxfam

Solange wears a white nurse's uniform and stands next to a building with a red cross on it

Solange, a nurse working in Democratic Republic of Congo

Five countries at the epicentre of prolonged conflict – Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Sudan and South Sudan - account for nearly two-thirds of the continent’s acute food insecurity. In Sudan alone, the ongoing conflict that erupted in April 2023 has claimed more than 150,000 lives, while millions more struggle to survive.

The economic costs are equally stark with the conflict estimated to cost the continent around $18 billion each year, seriously derailing development, disrupting trade and diverting resources away from crucial development priorities across large part of Africa.

Oxfam’s Vetoing Humanity report in 2024 showed that resolutions too often fail to deliver peace or address root causes, leaving ordinary people to shoulder the human and economic toll of crises they had no hand in shaping.

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“While conflicts across the continent continue to intensify, decisions driven largely by UNSC members are failing to ease the human cost for millions of people. For far too long, Africa has faced unjust, disproportionate challenges stemming from the current geopolitical landscape and key decisions affecting peace and security must be made with proper African representation. The UN Security Council must evolve to have the right people at the table.””

Fati N'zi-Hassane

In the heart of Northeast Nigeria, a quiet revolution is taking place. This story, "From Tradition to Transformation," takes you on an inspiring journey into the lives of individuals and communities transformed by the Promoting Women's Rights and Gender Equality (WoRGE) Project.

As African leaders gathered for the 39th AU Summit last week, Oxfam called on them to strongly reaffirm the common African position held since the Ezulwini Consensus with Africa remaining at the center of Security Council decisions without being represented, strengthening this political unity is essential to advancing fair multilateral reform.

The Ezulwini Consensus  is the African Union's common position on the reform of the United Nations, particularly the Security Council. Adopted in 2005 in Ezulwini, Swaziland (Eswatini), it calls for at least two permanent seats with veto power and five non-permanent seats for Africa in order to correct its under-representation.

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