Provisional Programme of Work of the Peace and Security Council for June 2026
Provisional Programme of Work of the Peace and Security Council for June 2026
Date | June 2026
In June 2026, the Federal Republic of Nigeria assumes the role of chairing the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council (PSC). The Council’s Provisional Programme of Work (PPoW) for the month envisages four substantive sessions covering five agenda items. Of the five agenda items, three are dedicated to thematic issues, while the remaining two will address conflict-specific issues. All sessions are expected to be at the ambassadorial level.
The first session of the month, scheduled for 2 June, will be an open session on refugees, IDPs and humanitarian assistance in Africa. The session takes place during the month in which World Refugee Day is observed, specifically on 20 June, in accordance with the UN General Assembly Resolution 55/76/2001. The last time the PSC convened a substantial session on the theme ‘Refugees, IDPs and Humanitarian Assistance in Africa’ was in June 2024 at its 1216th session, in which it tasked the AU Commission ‘to develop systems for the collection, analysis and management of data and statistics related to refugees and internally displaced persons.’ Since then, there have been two sessions on humanitarian action in Africa relevant to this thematic session. These were the Council’s 1286th and 1307th meetings. Of relevance to the session on 2 June, the PSC, in its 1307th session, emphasised the need for stronger humanitarian assistance for refugees, returnees, and IDPs, and called on humanitarian agencies and partners to scale up resource mobilisation, resilience-building, reintegration support, and access to basic services while addressing the root causes leading to these situations.
On 3 June, the PSC will convene for its second substantive session on the ‘Situation in Guinea.’ This will mark the PSC’s second session in the year to consider the situation in the country, following the formal end of Guinea’s transition period after the September 2021 military coup. The transition concluded with the presidential election held on 28 December 2025. General Mamadi Doumbouya, who led the 2021 coup, was declared the winner with 86.72 per cent of the vote after the Supreme Court announced the final results on 4 January 2026. He was subsequently sworn in as President on 17 January 2026. Following this, the Council convened for its 1325th meeting in January 2026 to consider the political transition in the country, in which it decided to lift the suspension of Guinea. This 3 June session comes amid a widening political crackdown in the country, where the government recently dissolved 40 political parties — including the main opposition groups. The dissolved parties include the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG), the Rally of the Guinean People (RPG), linked to former President Alpha Condé, and the Union of Republican Forces (UFR). Their assets were frozen, and use of their names and symbols was banned. In a rejoinder, Guinea’s main opposition leader, Cellou Dalein Diallo, called for ‘direct resistance’, stating that ‘war has been openly declared’ on those challenging President Doumbouya. The dissolution of the parties came two months ahead of legislative and local elections – planned for 31 May 2026. It has also been reported that since taking power, his government has also shut down media outlets, banned protests and targeted opposition figures and activists.
The third substantive session of the month, scheduled for 9 June 2026, will be an update on the ‘Situation in Libya.’ The last time the PSC considered the situation in the country was in July 2025 during its 1291st session, held at the Summit level. Several actionable decisions which require follow-up were made from that session, including undertaking a field mission to the country, tasking the AU, UN and EU to reactivate the Tripartite Task Force on migration, and the Chairperson of the Commission to ‘appoint a Special Envoy on Migration with a view to coordinating migration issues on the continent.’ The assignment also included tasking the Chairperson of the Commission to accelerate the relocation of the AU Liaison Office to Tripoli – which was temporarily relocated to Tunis. Since then, there has been some political and economic development in the country. On the one hand, and in a positive development, for the first time in over a decade, Libya’s rival legislative factions agreed on a unified state budget, signalling an unusual display of cooperation in a nation long divided by conflict. On the other hand, the two rival governments, the UN recognized government based in Tripoli and headed by Prime Minister Abdul Dbeibha and the eastern-based Government of National Unity headed by Prime Minister Osama Hamad with the backing of the House of Representatives are not any closer to reaching at consensus on a draft legislation for holding elections and the formation of an interim unity government for preparing and presiding over the elections, despite efforts by the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).
On 11 and 12 June, the PSC will be in Abuja, Nigeria, for its 3rd Annual Joint Consultative Meeting with the ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council (MSC). The annual joint convening will provide an opportunity for the PSC and the ECOWAS MSC to deliberate on issues relating to governance, peace and security in the West African Region, and review the status of progress in the implementation of the joint commitments adopted at the Inaugural Annual Joint Consultative Meeting held in April 2024, in Nigeria and the 2nd Annual Joint Consultative Meeting held in May 2025, in Ethiopia. Particularly, building on the second annual joint consultations, it will provide the opportunity to get an update and advance discussions of the decisions from the meeting, which included the call for the ‘establishment of a Joint Threat Fusion and Analysis Cell as part of the proposed AU–ECOWAS Counter-Terrorism Coordination Platform, with the African Union Counter Terrorism Centre (AUCTC),’ among others.
The last substantial session for the month, which is scheduled for 30 June, will have two agenda items. The first will be a ‘Briefing on 10-Year Country Structural Vulnerability and Resilience Assessment (CSVRA) Review.’ The last time the Council considered this theme was in December 2024, at its 1251st session. It is important to recall that the CSVRA (alongside the Country Structural Vulnerability Mitigation Strategies (CSVMS)) were developed in response to a request by the PSC at its 463rd session for a structural vulnerability assessment framework. Following their completion, the PSC, at its 901st meeting, encouraged Member States to fully utilise the Commission’s tools for structural conflict prevention, including the CSVRA. Despite being voluntary instruments designed to support Member States in assessing vulnerability and strengthening resilience, uptake has remained limited. In its 1251st meeting, the PSC commended the four Member States that have engaged in the CSVRA/CSVMS process—Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Zambia, and Malawi—for their commitment to identifying and reinforcing resilience factors, addressing structural vulnerabilities to conflict, and developing targeted recommendations to mitigate risks and enhance stability. At the same time, the PSC expressed concern over the low level of accession to the Continental Structural Conflict Prevention Framework (CSCPF) tools, nine years after their adoption. In addition to this, some recent engagements have also been held in advancing collective efforts to strengthen structural conflict prevention and resilience, including the Malawi draft report validation meeting held in November 2025, and the Strategic Review of the Continental Early Warning System (CEWS) methodology held in November 2025 in Rwanda, which included reviewing the CSCPF implementation (which considered the CSVRA and CSVMS). This session is therefore expected to give an update on the 10-Year CSVRA review, and follow up on the tasks from the 1251st session, which included undertaking a comprehensive review of the CEWS, CSVRA and CSVMS, establishing a comprehensive coordination mechanism, in collaboration with RECs/RMs and the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) and [challenges to] providing half-yearly reports on the implementation of the CSVRA and CSVMS to the Council, as agreed.
The second agenda item will be an ‘Update on Compliance and Accountability Framework.’ The session is expected to provide an opportunity to assess the status of the implementation of the tripartite AU-EU-UN project on the AU Compliance and Accountability Framework (AUCF). Launched in November 2022, the project aims to enhance AU’s capacity to ensure that its PSOs are continuously planned and conducted in compliance with international human rights law and international humanitarian law, as well as applicable standards of conduct and discipline. In early May 2026, the AU–EU–UN Strategic Steering Committee (SSC) of the AUCF convened its annual meeting to shape the project’s next four-year phase. Building on the strong achievements of the first phase — including a 97% implementation rate and the successful rollout of a digital Case Management System — the discussions focused on institutionalising compliance mechanisms across all AU PSOs, advancing sustainable financing arrangements, and strengthening operational and governance structures for the 2026–2030 period.
Aside from these substantive sessions, the PSC subsidiary body, the Committee of Experts (CoE), will meet on 5 June for preparations for the Joint Consultative Meeting between the AU PSC and ECOWAS MSC. In addition, the newly elected Military Staff Committee members will travel to Abuja, Nigeria, for their induction, following their election to the Council during the 39th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Union held in February 2026. In addition, the 5th Policy Session of the AU Inter-Regional Knowledge Exchange on Early Warning and Conflict Prevention (I-RECKE) will be held on 26 June, which will precede the 8th Mid-Year Coordination Meeting of the AU, RECs and RMs, to be held on 27 June. All these engagements will take place in El Alamein, Egypt, on the sidelines of the 49th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council.
Lastly, the PPoW envisages in the footnote that the Chairpersons of the PSC for the months of May and June 2026 will present a communication on the activities conducted by the PSC in the months during which they chaired the Council.