Crisis in the Horn of Africa

The Kent Global Leadership Program in Conflict Resolution at Columbia SIPA, in conjunction with SIPA's Institute of Global Politics, will host a panel discussion with leading experts on issues facing the countries of the Horn of Africa.

Speakers:
Alex DeWaal, Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation and Research Professor, Tufts University
Mulugeta Gebrehiwot, World Peace Foundation, Tufts University
Meskerem Geset, human rights lawyer
Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Director of SIPA’s Kent Global Leadership Program on Conflict Resolution; former UN Under-Secretary General for Peacekeeping
Hillary Rodham Clinton, Professor of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University; 67th Secretary of State and former Senator from New York; IGP Faculty Advisory Board Chair (moderator)

The Horn of Africa faces a humanitarian crisis as some 90 million people are in danger of famine. War continues to rage in Sudan, while a fragile peace has taken hold in Ethiopia after the disastrous Tigray War of 2020-2022. The region’s borders, unlike those in the rest of Africa, are in flux, as secessionist movements have successfully given birth to new states in South Sudan and Eritrea, and a de facto state in Somaliland. Atrocities abound as weak central governments terrorize civilian populations in a desperate attempt to rein in violent rebel movements. In the face of all this adversity, the peacekeeping landscape has never been more bleak. The African Union is beset by internal strife and dysfunction, while the UN is divided and distracted by events elsewhere. The Gulf States have indulged in destabilizing political patronage of African actors, creating perverse incentives which undermine the foundations of peace. With the attention of the world focused on Gaza and Ukraine, there is a danger that the Horn will be left to its own devices, which could mean mass starvation and continued war, ethnic cleansing and genocide.