Meeting in Addis Ababa between 14 and 15 February 2026, the African Union placed water security at the center of its agenda. But the discussion goes beyond water: it cuts across political legitimacy, the continent’s geopolitical reconfiguration, and the debate over informational sovereignty in a multipolar world.
Between 14 and 15 February 2026, the Heads of State and Government of the 55 member countries of the African Union gathered in Addis Ababa for the 39th Ordinary Session of the Assembly. The official theme was Ensuring sustainable water availability and safe sanitation systems to achieve the goals of Agenda 2063, adopted as the Theme of the Year 2026 in the final communiqué. In today’s African context, water is infrastructure, stability, sovereignty and survival.
The continent faces prolonged droughts in the Horn of Africa, water stress across large areas of the Sahel, and urban demographic pressures that strain sanitation and productive systems. The decision to place water at the core of the 2026 agenda is not rhetorical: it reflects a structural diagnosis. Without water security there is no resilient agriculture; without agriculture there is no food security; and without food security there is no political stability.
From an African perspective, the approach is consistent with Agenda 2063, reaffirmed in the final communiqué as the common roadmap for inclusive and resilient development. Water security is not merely an environmental policy; it is a component of state architecture.
However, the summit unfolded amid tensions that go beyond climate issues.
In recent years, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger experienced institutional ruptures that profoundly altered the political landscape of West Africa. These governments have reconfigured military and diplomatic alliances, reducing the French presence and expanding ties with Russia and other non-Western actors. The final communiqué expressed deep concern over conflicts, terrorism and violent extremism, unconstitutional changes of government, and humanitarian crises, and reaffirmed zero tolerance for unconstitutional changes of government, as well as the commitment to silence the guns in Africa.
From an African and Eastern reading of the global landscape, this movement forms part of a transition toward a multipolar order. Competition between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for influence in the Horn of Africa confirms that Africa is not a periphery but a central arena in the redistribution of global power.
Yet every external reconfiguration has an internal correlate.
In Addis Ababa, during the period of the summit, Ethiopian authorities revoked accreditations from international journalists covering the meeting, a fact reported by Reuters. In Bamako, on 5 February 2026, journalist Youssouf Sissoko was detained after publishing criticism of Niger’s military leader. Both events are part of a deeper discussion on narrative sovereignty.
From the perspective of several Sahel governments, Western media are seen as instruments of geopolitical pressure. African history contains episodes of intervention and media strategies aligned with external interests. Distrust, therefore, does not arise in a vacuum.
However, the challenge is not only external. The critical issue is what institutional model consolidates when foreign influence is restricted.
If communicational sovereignty translates into concentration of informational control without independent judicial counterbalances or safeguards for local journalism, the risk is that geopolitical emancipation leads to internal opacity. Replacing dependence with centralization does not automatically amount to democratization.
From an autonomous African vision, the objective should not be simply to expel Western narratives, but to build robust, professional media systems capable of engaging on equal terms in the global arena. Sovereignty is not silence; it is institutional capacity.
The African Union itself faces criticism from youth sectors who perceive it as distant from demographic and economic urgencies. Africa is the youngest continent on the planet. The gap between traditional political leadership and youth expectations is a structural factor the summit cannot ignore.
Prospectively, the African scenario may evolve in three directions.
First, a multipolar consolidation in which Africa negotiates with multiple partners from a more balanced strategic position.
Second, an institutionalization of environmental sovereignty, where water and climate governance become the core of regional cooperation and South-South investment.
Third, an internal bifurcation: either processes of rupture with historical dependencies translate into institutional strengthening and pluralism, or they evolve into closed models where power concentrates under the banner of sovereignty.
At the formal conclusion of the 39th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union, leaders issued a final communiqué adopting Decisions, Declarations and Resolutions and confirming the assumption of office of H.E. Évariste Ndayishimiye as Chairperson of the African Union for 2026.
The communiqué reaffirmed the commitment to a Union that is people-centered, efficient, accountable and financially sustainable. It adopted reports from bodies such as Africa CDC (Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention), APRM (African Peer Review Mechanism), AUDA-NEPAD (African Union Development Agency – New Partnership for Africa’s Development), CAHOSCC (Committee of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change) and the C-10 Committee (Committee of Ten Heads of State and Government on United Nations Security Council Reform).
In terms of global governance, the Assembly reiterated the need for equitable representation of Africa in global governance institutions and took note of the report on the AU’s participation in the G20 (Group of Twenty), highlighting priorities such as sustainable development financing, debt restructuring, climate action, food security and digital transformation.
In the development sphere, the Assembly highlighted progress in the implementation of the AfCFTA (African Continental Free Trade Area) and stressed the importance of accelerating industrialization, value addition and intra-African trade. It reaffirmed the transformation of food systems within the framework of CAADP (Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme) and the mobilization of resources for infrastructure, energy, water and climate adaptation.
It also considered a study on classifying colonization as a crime against humanity and certain acts from the era of slavery and deportation as acts of genocide against the peoples of Africa. It examined the report on the situation in Palestine and reiterated its support for a solution in accordance with international law and relevant United Nations resolutions.
The Addis Ababa summit did not resolve all these tensions. But it made clear that Africa seeks to consolidate its own strategic architecture within the international system, linking water, peace, institutional reform and global representation.
Water was the formal theme. Sovereignty—environmental, political and institutional—was the transversal axis.
The future of the continent will depend on how it balances strategic autonomy, inclusive governance and fundamental rights without reproducing new dependencies or new opacities.
