Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has called on African leaders to rethink how the continent’s vast natural resources are managed and shared, arguing that its wealth must create better opportunities for young people.
Speaking at the African Union Executive Council’s 26th Extraordinary Session on Conflict Resolution and Prevention in Angola on Friday, 29th August 2026, Mr Ablakwa said Africa needed a new approach to tackling the problems that continue to drive conflict, poverty and dangerous migration.
He said African leaders had spent years developing peace and security frameworks, holding meetings and seeking to recapitalise the African Union Peace Fund, but argued that financial resources alone would not solve the continent’s problems.
“We need to take a new path,” he said.
“We have pursued all these AU paradigms and protocols and convened meetings to recapitalise the Peace Fund. But perhaps what we should begin to recapitalise, in all humility, is our heart and our mindset.”
Mr Ablakwa urged leaders to show greater tolerance, compassion and long term vision, particularly when addressing the underlying causes of conflict.
“Can we be more tolerant of each other? Can we be more compassionate? Can we be more visionary about the root causes of conflict?” he asked.
He said the continent could raise billions of dollars for peace initiatives, but such efforts would have little impact without a fundamental change in leadership and priorities.
“We can have $1 billion, $10 billion, $100 billion in a Peace Fund, but it will mean nothing if we do not change course, if we do not adopt a new leadership paradigm,” he said.
The minister also drew attention to the dangers facing African young people who leave the continent in search of better economic opportunities.
Citing a report by the International Organization for Migration, he said more than 2,180 young Africans died in the Mediterranean while attempting to reach Europe in search of what he described as greener pastures.
For Mr Ablakwa, the deaths should force African governments to confront the economic conditions pushing young people to make such perilous journeys.
He called for a renewed focus on job creation, industrialisation and genuine decentralisation, as well as a fairer distribution of the continent’s natural wealth.
Africa, he noted, is endowed with valuable resources including diamonds, gold, bauxite, oil and gas. The challenge, he said, is to ensure that these resources translate into meaningful opportunities for ordinary Africans, particularly the continent’s growing youth population.
“How can we share Africa’s rich resources for the African young people? This is a new paradigm that we need for our continent,” Mr Ablakwa said.
His comments placed economic opportunity and the management of Africa’s natural resources at the centre of the continent’s wider peace and security debate, suggesting that addressing the conditions that leave young people without jobs and prospects must form part of efforts to prevent conflict and irregular migration.
