“A low-intensity dispute between Malawi and Tanzania threatens regional peace
as the two countries contest the demarcation of their national boundaries at Lake Malawi. This long-standing dispute became more urgent when in 2011
the Malawian government issued licences for oil prospecting beneath the lake’s
northern shoreline. Although tensions have waxed and waned in accordance with the respective countries’ election cycles, both seek a speedy resolution of
this dispute. Potential oil revenues are a significant game changer for these two
highly indebted poor countries – but perhaps more so for Malawi, which is less
endowed with natural resources. In the absence of a functioning SADC Tribunal to
mediate the dispute, the task has been assigned to the Forum for Former African
Heads of State and Government, but there are also other regional mechanisms
that could assist with the task. In particular, it falls within the purview of the many early-warning mechanisms in SADC and the AU that already exist and
whose raison d’être is to prevent the escalation of disputes. This paper explores the failures and challenges that plague Africa’s preventive diplomacy institutions and advocates that the region would do well to empower these institutions. This would foster stronger and more legitimate regional institutions that would be better able to act decisively on dispute settlement.”
