Multilateral Institutions as Panacea for Crime Prevention in Africa: A Case Study of African Union Mechanisms

Abstract

The article assesses the role of multilateral institutions in crime prevention in Africa. It seeks to explore the role of continental organization, most importantly, African Union, in the area of providing leadership towards solving teething problem of crime in Africa. The scourge of terrorism, insurgency, and banditry is a menace that has continued to ravage the continent of Africa for decades. The incessant unleashing of act of terror on innocent people has gained the attention of some multilateral institutions within the global system; and with cooperation and assistance of global partners the African Union has launched itself to be part of the crusade. The near-breakdown of law and order in the central, West, and Horn of Africa has attracted the attention of African Union in recent decade which ultimately led to the emergence of new mechanisms within the framework of African Union to respond to some of these seemingly new threats. Thus, the current research attempts to explore those mechanisms that are established by the African Union to respond to all forms of crime within the continent, most especially in the West Africa sub-region where terror attacks, insurgency and banditry have posed serious threat to the corporate existence of states. In conducting the research, the use latent content analysis is employed to mine data from existing literature and documents.