As 2021 ends, the year has proven to be a difficult time for the success of various initiatives by the international community to address conflicts throughout the world. In Libya, the implementation of the new Government of National Unity headed by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah has suffered accusations that the same UN-backed process to elect him was marred with corruption. Moreover, with mere days to the purported Presidential election date on 24 December, political polarization such as an inability to agree on the legality of some candidates, security risks to candidates and voters due to the prevalence of militias throughout the country, as well as other outstanding issues looks set to delay the democratic event yet again. Meanwhile the prospects for the country, now nearly 11 years since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, remains uncertain.
In the Horn of Africa, there too have been events that have undermined political processes. Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a former darling of the international community and recipient of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, has dismissed calls for dialogue with rebels in Tigray and continued to wage a war throughout the year at the expense of thousands of suffering civilians. Its neighbor Sudan, who had been following its own internationally backed process to transition to democracy, experienced a coup in October which demonstrated the continual domination of status quo military figures in that political system. Meanwhile scores of pro-democracy protestors in Khartoum and elsewhere in the country continue to face oppressive crackdowns.
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