Op-ed : Africa, everybody must support Trump’s “search for peace”, It may be the last chance
Atuhairwe Robert
By Robert Atuhairwe
Ukraine is on fire, DR Congo is bleeding, Middle East is exploding, Kashmir is pounding, Myanmar is battered, the Sudans are imploding! Add other locations you know where peace is but a word in the dictionary and you will see why human beings are fast becoming the most destructive species, if not already. The blood streams, the humanitarian crises, the utter devastation of physical infrastructure, the total disruption of life, the breakage of bonds and escalation of rivalries due to cycles of violence. Biblical proportions of social upheaval in our times!
In the midst of this blood-ridden narrative stands Donald J Trump, the second-term President of the United States (POTUS). Love or hate him, Trump’s heart and shuffling for peace is as a moving testament of humanity at its most ideal.
During his first term in office (2016-2020) and before the Russia-Ukraine war broke out, he had a Vision for a comprehensive peace agreement for the Middle East where Israel and Palestine have been engaged in intermittent conflict for decades. For nearly a century, the international community has attempted to resolve this conflict but with no success so far. But this doesn’t mean that it’s not possible to achieve peace. It’s very possible, depending on the players and their mindset.
President Trump didn’t stay in office long enough to work his plan out the first time and that may have contributed to the current situation that has left that place almost in ruins, with each passing hour bringing new uncertainties. Trump’s plans are always about negotiation, even if “forced” on the warring parties, or decisive action to bring a conclusion to the fighting.
With the Russia-Ukraine war (which begun in 2022), the 47th POTUS has repeatedly stated that the war wouldn’t have broken out had he been in office.
“We want to end that war. That war would have not started if I was president,” he is quoted by euronews.com in an article in February this year, a week so after assuming office.
Since then, he has actively engaged the Russians led by President Vladimir Putin and the Ukrainians led by President Vlodomyr Zelensky. He has spoken with both men a number of times on phone and physically, as when he met the Ukrainian leader at the Vatican during Pope Francis’s burial ceremonies. That Trump chose to push his limits for peace in the holiest of places says much of his intentions.
Interventions in other troubled places come in different forms but, without downplaying or ignoring the contributions of other stakeholders including global bodies like the United Nations (UN), how quickly can we have results? Discussions and phone calls between two or three people, a few roundtable meetings and unprincipled ceasefires aren’t helping much. Casualties mount every second, with each moment bringing the prospect of “nuclear decisiveness” closer. Yet, on the side, we are not short on pessimists and negative “catalysts” tuning down the “little” that is being done for peace than the “much” that has been invested in the conflict.
“Peace in Ukraine looks further away after Trump’s call with Putin,” went an analysis by Stephen Collison on CCN.com of Tuesday, May 20, 2025. “So much for Donald Trump’s “force of personality” forcing Russian President Vladimir Putin to prove he wants to end the war in Ukraine.
The president’s hyped-up phone call with his Russian counterpart on Monday mostly served to highlight how far away any such breakthrough may be”.
Here: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/20/politics/trump-putin-russia-ukraine-ceasefire-talks
Okay, analyzing Trump’s or any effort is a good thing, but what is everyone else doing about the problem? If his hopes are farfetched, what can others do to make the plans realistic? A colleague on a WhatsApp chat group appeared to propose that Trump’s interests in these things is all about showing that he is “the man” and a way to “reclaim” US supremacy. Yes or no, does it matter if he is the man that leads the world to sanity or the US “reclaims” supremacy by securing peace in the world?
Russia’s Putin is quoted as saying that he prefers resolving underlying issues to the conflict but it would seem as if he is moving on well with Trump’s “summary moves”. Just recently, Ukraine and European partners were pushing for a 30-day ceasefire to allow time for talks on a permanent peace agreement to start but Moscow had refused, insisting on “talks now” on a final deal. So, even on the process of talks, the contending sides are not easily married on the how, which is not surprising because even now attacks and counter attacks are going on.
Trump, in the meantime, has voiced frustration at the pace of things and reportedly told reporters at the Oval Office some time that he may back away from the process of talks if the “big egos” involved do not relent. If he does give up, then the conflict will grind on until the last man has been minced to meat.
Belligerents are usually, really, combative even with mediators. Getting them to stop is not simple if their interests have not been met, or so they claim. However, conflicts that affect the world are the business of the world to bring them to a halt. The Russia-Ukraine war is one such.
In Uganda, we have felt the reverberations of that war deeply. Apart from the human sentiments for the bloodbaths and destruction, we have been affected in real terms. To point out one area, ever since the war broke out, fertiliser imports from Russia and Ukraine have stopped. This has affected agricultural production, and one sector most hit is the tea sector. The tea sector in Uganda imploded with prices falling from Shs600 per kilo to Shs130. This was a result of crop quality plummeting due to lack of fertilisers. Farmers in the Western region of Uganda areas like Bushenyi, Buhweju, Kabarole and Kanungu have had to uproot their plants, while factories have shut down and others are on the edge.
Our Easterly neighbour, Kenya, is likely in the same boat, plus other countries that had heavy dependency on Russian and Ukrainian inputs. Are the fertiliser factories still in one piece, anyway, aside from the blockage of supply lines?
The crumbling of the tea sector has destabilised the livelihoods of millions of people, directly and indirectly. Needless to say, the end of that war would be a huge relief. It’s possible that we are losing people due to financial stress, an unseen extension of the war zone carnage. A bullet shot in the war zone kills someone in Kijura, Kabarole, another district in Uganda. We also had many of our people working or studying in the two warring countries that were forced back home. Every African country likely has something to say in this regard. Therefore, that war is very much our concern.
When President Trump won re-election, our President signed off his congratulatory message issued on November 8, 2024, to the POTUS-elect thus: “Yours-in-search for peace and mutually beneficial co-operation. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni (Gen Rtd) President of Uganda.” A Trump-Museveni partnership in “search for peace” would sketch an all-humanity front for the peace effort. That’s a recommendation, and the formation could have more names!
President Museveni is known for his actively strong stance for security interests in the Great Lakes region using both military and soft diplomatic skills to resolve underlying issues around conflict. Other than for the ever evolving facts of the causes of conflict and the unwillingness of some stakeholders in the region, he has played a “Trump-like” role for long. What lets him down is lack of a modern arsenal of weaponry- as deterrence to the inflexible groups- unlike what is available to Trump and the Americans, or the Russians and other world powers.
That’s where it calls for Africa and the rest of the world to speak one language of PEACE. More voices for peace will outweigh those for war, and make a case for a world worn out with endless, needless fighting.
For now, on the global scene, Trump is like a lone voice and sometimes you get this feeling that there are those wishing that his term ends before the major conflicts in the world are resolved, yet this may be the last chance we have before “all hell breaks loose”.
The African Union has a lot to do with this “in search for peace”, within and beyond the continent. What is Africa’s collective position on how to end that war? If there is no continental Africa position, how can that be so?
And because this campaign requires both the will and the means to instill peace, a global partnership that assures the peace-loving community of both is the best response. There is nothing in the world today that’s more pertinent than peace. Whatever else we are engaged in- even things like elections- is a waste of time if there is no guarantee of being alive tomorrow. Let every inhabitant of the world be counted in this hour of need. Give peace a chance or we reap doom. Matthew 5:9: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”
The writer is a leader in Uganda and promoter of Trump policies
Email: 777aronda777@gmail.com
Phone no: +256778738888
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