Africa Conflict, Peace and Governance Monitor, 2005. an Annual Publication on the State of Governance in Africa

As the second largest continent in the world, Africa holds great potential for progress and prosperity. And yet in the post-independence period, it has been beset by civil war and civil strife in all but six of the 53 member states of the African Union. Conflict on the continent has come to be recognised as major impediment to development and genuine democratisation. Between 1996 and 1999 the African Centre for Development and Strategic Studies (ACDESS) carried out independent policy research with the aims of achieving in-depth understanding about the nature and causes of the manifold and recurring conflicts on the continent. The aim was to influence the policymakers at governmental and international levels who had usually failed to deal with these conflicts. The key research and findings of the Monitor over the past decade are presented in this book. The papers covers five of the major conflict countries: Burundi, Rwanda and the Great Lakes region, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Angola, and, additionally, Mali, Nigeria and Somalia.