Peacemaking for Profit: The Farce of Global Diplomacy and Africa’s Silent Union

 

 

By Alpha Amadu Jalloh

 

They say peace is priceless. Yet for global powers and international institutions, peace is only worth pursuing where profit, power and political gain are guaranteed. This is the uncomfortable truth behind the recent Qatar-brokered peace initiative involving factions in Sudan. A deal that has been lauded in the media but is, in essence, an indictment of the African Union’s impotence and the international community’s gross double standards.

 

The African Union, created to unify the continent and provide African solutions to African problems, has once again revealed itself to be a sleeping institution. In moments when the continent cries out for leadership, the AU offers only platitudes and photo opportunities. It did not initiate the Sudan peace process. It did not bring warring generals to the table. It did not assert African leadership in resolving a conflict that has claimed thousands of lives and displaced millions. Instead, it stood by as Qatar took charge, further entrenching the foreign savior narrative that has plagued the continent for decades.

 

The AU’s inaction on Sudan is not an isolated failure. It is a pattern. From Ethiopia’s Tigray war to the implosion of Mali and Burkina Faso, the AU has consistently opted for silence or irrelevance. Where decisive engagement is needed, it offers monitoring. Where condemnation is expected, it provides concern. Where intervention is required, it convenes consultations. The result is an organisation that exists more in theory than practice.

 

This is not merely bureaucratic failure. It is moral abdication. The very union that prides itself on Agenda 2063 and pan-African ideals has become dependent on foreign powers not only for financial support but also for diplomatic direction. This dependency has rendered it incapable of acting independently or asserting Africa’s sovereignty in matters of life and death.

 

Equally disturbing is the posture of Western powers, especially the United States and the United Nations, whose approach to global conflicts is dictated entirely by self-interest. When war erupted in Ukraine, Western governments responded with unprecedented urgency. Billions in aid flowed in, sanctions were imposed on Russia, and the international media covered every development around the clock. Ukraine, after all, shares borders with NATO countries and stands at the frontier of Western influence.

 

But Sudan. Palestine. Congo. Who cares.

 

The United States has neither deployed its diplomatic arsenal nor mobilized its vast resources to bring an end to Sudan’s war. It has issued statements and vague calls for restraint while watching Khartoum burn. Where is the same moral conviction it demonstrated in Kyiv? Why is there no special envoy, no summit, no emergency Security Council resolution demanding an end to hostilities? Because Sudan has nothing Washington wants. No oil contracts to protect. No gas pipelines to defend. No strategic interest to uphold.

 

The United Nations, for its part, has proven just as complicit. With all its departments and diplomatic machinery, it has failed to prevent atrocities that are well documented. Genocide in Darfur. Ethnic cleansing in Tigray. No sanctions. No accountability. No urgency. The very institution that was supposed to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war has become a symbol of bureaucratic delay and diplomatic impotence.

 

Even more blatant is the silence surrounding the decades-long Israeli occupation of Palestine. Children are murdered. Homes are bombed. Journalists are assassinated. Basic rights are denied. Yet no Qatar-brokered peace is on the table. No American-led negotiation. No serious attempt by the United Nations to hold Israel accountable. Instead, the Palestinian people are demonized, their suffering dismissed, and their aspirations crushed under the weight of geopolitical bias.

 

Contrast this with the war in Ukraine, and the disparity is infuriating. Ukraine received weapons, funding, sympathy and a global platform. Palestinians are given condemnation and ignored. Sudanese citizens are left to starve and suffer while the world debates spheres of influence.

 

What explains this glaring hypocrisy? Simple. Western powers and global institutions do not act on the basis of justice. They act on the basis of interest. If a region has no vital resources, no strategic alliances and no economic leverage, then its people are left to die in silence. Peace, in their world, is not a right. It is a reward given to countries that matter to them.

 

Qatar’s role in Sudan must also be scrutinized, not celebrated. It is not lost on observers that Qatar has business and political interests in Sudan just as it does in several conflict zones across Africa and the Middle East. Its peacemaking efforts are often more about optics than outcomes. They give it global prestige, access to elite diplomatic spaces and leverage in international affairs.

 

That is not peace. That is positioning.

 

A true peace deal must be inclusive, enforceable and rooted in justice. Not in the interests of the mediator. If the parties involved in Sudan’s conflict are only signing agreements for the sake of pleasing foreign sponsors, then the bloodshed will resume the moment the cameras are gone. If there is no mechanism for reconciliation, accountability or power sharing, then it is a ceasefire in name only.

 

For the African Union to accept this Qatar-led process without asserting its own authority is a national disgrace. African nations must not allow their fate to be dictated by external powers. To let outsiders define peace in Africa is to surrender the continent’s dignity. It is also dangerous because foreign-brokered peace often imposes solutions without understanding the full cultural, historical or political complexities on the ground.

 

The AU should have been the one calling the peace conference, bringing warring parties together, engaging traditional leaders and civil society, and establishing a continental framework for post-conflict reconstruction. Instead, it watched from the sidelines, as it often does.

 

Africa needs more than empty slogans. It needs bold leadership. The AU must be reformed or replaced. It must be funded by Africans and answerable to African citizens, not Western donors or Gulf billionaires. It must develop rapid response units, a credible diplomatic corps and a conflict prevention mechanism that works.

 

Equally, African governments must stop outsourcing their responsibilities. Peace in Sudan, Congo or Cameroon cannot be achieved by proxy. It must be built by those who live, suffer and die in these lands. We must reject the idea that African lives are worth less on the global stage.

 

When we see peace delivered only to countries with gas pipelines, uranium mines or Western alliances, we must speak up. When conflicts in black and brown nations are ignored while others receive global attention, we must call it what it is, racism, greed and hypocrisy dressed up as diplomacy.

 

Qatar’s peace deal in Sudan is a wake-up call. It reminds us that Africa remains unprepared, underrepresented and undervalued in shaping its own destiny. The African Union is a shell. The United States is disingenuous. The United Nations is ineffective. And global peacemaking is nothing more than a marketplace where humanity is auctioned to the highest bidder.

 

We can no longer accept a world order where justice is rationed and peace is reserved only for the rich, the strategic and the powerful.

 

If we do not reclaim our voice, others will continue to speak for us. If we do not lead our peace processes, others will profit from our pain. And if we do not expose this hypocrisy, we become complicit in our own exploitation.

 

The time to speak out is now. The time to act is long overdue.