The Unintended Consequences of African Union Sanctions of Member States: Myths and Realities

Sanctions have been a popular tool of economic statecraft. Sanctions on sub-Saharan African countries have come from states and different international bodies such as the United Nations (UN), the United States (US), and the European Union (EU), as well as regional bodies such as the African Union (AU), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), and the East African Community (EAC). This chapter examines the unintended consequences of sanctions in targeted countries, with a focus on sanctions imposed by the AU on its member states. The chapter contains a collection of AU’s Peace and Security Council (PSC) sanction episodes since 2002 and an examination of humanitarian crises in selected countries. This chapter argues that most sanctions in Africa fail to achieve the main goals for which they were imposed and that it is the ordinary citizens and not targeted state officials who suffer the most. Furthermore, sanctions in Africa have resulted in weak economic growth, rising inflation due to a shortage of basic goods, a reduction in trade (exports and imports) and increased unemployment. The rising extreme poverty in Africa in conjunction with the pressure on economic resources initiated by sanctions magnifies the woes of ordinary Africans.

This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in The Routledge Handbook of the Political Economy of Sanctions on 31 Oct 2023, available online: http://www.routledge.com/9781032355634