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The African Union Peace and Security Council (PSC) is convening its 1334th open session to discuss women's leadership in addressing emerging threats to peace and security, specifically focusing on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and technology-facilitated violence. This virtual meeting is a continuation of the Council's commitment to the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, which has been a standing item since 2010. The session aims to explore the intensifying impacts of AI-driven threats and digital technology violence on women in conflict settings and public life, and to strategize on effective, women-led responses within the continental peace and security architecture.
On March 9th, 2026, the African Union Peace and Security Council (PSC) will convene its 1334th open session, dedicated to exploring women's crucial leadership in addressing the dual challenges of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and technology-facilitated violence as emerging threats to peace and security. This virtual gathering marks a significant continuation of the Council's long-standing engagement with the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda, which was institutionalized as a permanent item at its 223rd meeting in March 2010. The session will feature opening remarks by Almon Mahlaba Mamba, Chairperson of the PSC for March 2026, introductory remarks from Bankole Adeoye, Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, and presentations by Liberata Mulamula, Special Envoy on WPS, Justice Effie Ewuor of FemWise-Africa, and a representative from UN Women. Member States and Regional Economic Communities are also expected to contribute statements. This thematic expansion reflects the evolving nature of threats to peace and security, demanding a deeper examination of how technological advancements intersect with gendered vulnerabilities and peacebuilding efforts across Africa.
The session takes place amidst a severely worsening peace and security environment across the African continent. Protracted and renewed conflicts in regions such as Sudan, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Sahel, and the Horn of Africa continue to fuel widespread displacement, exacerbate humanitarian crises, and result in severe atrocities against civilians. In these volatile contexts, women and girls bear a disproportionate burden of suffering, facing escalating rates of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), forced and early marriages, economic disenfranchisement, and significant barriers to their meaningful participation in peace processes. Sexual violence, in many instances, is employed as a deliberate tactic of war, while shrinking civic spaces stifle women's activism. These existing vulnerabilities are now critically compounded by the emergence of AI-amplified disinformation, pervasive cyber-harassment, and online gender-based violence, which collectively demand innovative, women-led strategies for digital resilience and enhanced accountability mechanisms.
The proliferation of digital technologies and Artificial Intelligence is fundamentally reshaping political communication, conflict dynamics, and social interactions across Africa. While these advancements hold immense potential for economic growth, innovation, and improved governance—including the development of women-led digital peacebuilding tools—they simultaneously generate new and significant risks. Notably, they enable sophisticated forms of technology-facilitated violence that specifically target women engaged in public life, such as peacebuilders, journalists, activists, and political leaders. Recent reports and studies reveal alarming trends: a 2024 UNU-Interpeace report highlighted AI-generated deep fakes and botnets exacerbating ethnic polarization in the DRC. A 2025 study across 11 African countries documented cases like an Ethiopian Mayor enduring deep fake pornography seen by over half a million people, and coordinated online harassment targeting Cameroon’s Brenda Biya, reaching millions via 'spamouflage.' A 2026 analysis by Binding Hook further emphasized generative AI's role in low-cost gendered disinformation, exemplified by election deep fakes against women politicians in Ghana, Namibia, and Kenya, causing reputational damage, psychological trauma, and civic exclusion by exploiting patriarchal norms, with outrage boosting platform engagement significantly.
Beyond the digital information sphere, the Council is expected to examine how AI-enabled technologies are profoundly altering the conduct of warfare itself, creating a dangerous intersection with the changing nature of conflicts on the continent. Recent analyses, including Amani Africa’s annual review, underscore the rapid and widespread proliferation of drones as a new 'weapon of choice' in several African conflicts. In contexts like Sudan, the indiscriminate use of these advanced technologies has resulted in devastating consequences for civilian populations, particularly in densely populated urban areas. Women and girls often bear a disproportionate impact, experiencing increased civilian deaths, injuries, displacement, loss of livelihoods, and a heightened sense of insecurity. These critical developments highlight an urgent and pressing need for the establishment of stronger regulatory frameworks and robust accountability mechanisms to govern the development and deployment of AI-enabled and algorithm-assisted weapons systems. Such measures are vital to prevent further harm to civilians and mitigate the deepening of gendered vulnerabilities within already fragile conflict settings.
The African Union has established a comprehensive normative architecture designed to tackle AI-driven threats within the broader Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. Key foundational instruments include the African Union Digital Transformation Strategy (2020–2030), which aims to foster inclusive digital ecosystems but lacks explicit WPS-specific mandates. The African Union Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection (Malabo Convention) provides essential data safeguards, yet its effectiveness is limited by the fact that only 16 states have ratified it by 2026. Complementing these, the PSC has recently called for a continental AI-governance-peace advisory mechanism. Further support for WPS pillars comes from the Maputo Protocol (2003) and the landmark AU Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (2025), which explicitly criminalizes 'cyber violence,' encompassing deep fakes, doxing, and algorithmic harassment. The Continental Results Framework (CRF) is intended to drive gender-disaggregated monitoring. However, despite this robust framework, enforcement remains hobbled by weak national domestication, chronic underfunding, and critical gaps, such as missing tech-threat indicators, which collectively impede the effective protection and promotion of women's roles in peace processes.
The 1334th PSC session presents a pivotal opportunity to strategically operationalize the existing AU frameworks in the face of AI's profound impact on conflict dynamics, governance, and gender equality. The Council is expected to delve into the intricate intersections of technology and WPS, for instance, by examining how disinformation undermines women mediators in conflicts like Sudan and the DRC. It may champion targeted measures, including embedding cyber violence indicators into National Action Plans (NAPs) and the Continental Results Framework (CRF), accelerating the ratification of the Malabo Convention, empowering the proposed AI advisory mechanism with strong women leaders, and mandating gender audits of digital protocols within peace operations. A decisive pivot towards these accountable actions is crucial to transforming aspirations into tangible progress, thereby fortifying women's leadership within technologically resilient peace architectures. Furthermore, the Council may encourage the alignment of NAPs with emerging digital threat assessments and technology governance initiatives, ensuring that AI-driven risks and technology-enabled gender-based violence are integrated into comprehensive prevention strategies.
The session is also set to assess progress in women-led innovations that address emerging AI-driven security risks, such as AI-enabled early-warning systems and gender-responsive digital mediation platforms. While African women demonstrate significant potential in the technology ecosystem, accounting for a global high of 47% of STEM graduates, their representation sharply declines to just 23–30% in the tech workforce. Furthermore, structural barriers continue to limit their access to the digital ecosystem, with only 31–32% of African women using the internet compared to 42–43% of men. This significantly constrains their ability to develop essential digital and AI-related skills and to contribute meaningfully to technological governance and innovation. Consequently, the Council is expected to evaluate scaling initiatives like women-focused AI training and entrepreneurship programs, such as those supported by UNESCO, to bolster women’s leadership in digital peacebuilding. Concurrently, the PSC will address persistent structural barriers, including the underrepresentation of women in technology policy spaces and limited access to investment for women-led tech ventures, advocating for targeted capacity-building in cybersecurity, AI governance, and digital peacebuilding, and encouraging the deployment of women experts in digital security task forces across RECs/RMs.
Beyond the rapidly expanding digital domain, the session aims to contextualize AI- and technology-facilitated violence within the broader spectrum of structural and emerging threats that profoundly affect women and girls across Africa. These include pressing issues such as climate-related insecurity, the rise of violent extremism, protracted displacement crises, and deepening economic marginalization—factors explicitly highlighted during the 2025 Cotonou Meeting on Women, Peace and Security as critical drivers of gendered insecurity on the continent. The discussion will also incorporate economic governance frameworks, particularly where digital transformation intersects with existing gender inequalities. For example, continental initiatives like the AfCFTA Digital Trade Protocol, while designed to expand digital markets, often feature a gender-neutral design that risks overlooking structural constraints faced by women-owned Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), including limited access to finance, high transaction costs, and persistent digital connectivity gaps. In this regard, the session provides a crucial opportunity for the PSC to deliberate on how gender-responsive approaches can be more systematically mainstreamed across all tools of the AU peace and security architecture, including early warning mechanisms and regular Council briefings, while ensuring that responses to emerging technological threats are intrinsically linked to broader socio-economic and governance reforms.
The anticipated outcome of tomorrow’s session is the issuance of a communiqué that will call for more robust measures to combat the escalating risks posed by Artificial Intelligence and technology-facilitated violence, all within the overarching framework of the Women, Peace and Security agenda. Specifically, the PSC is expected to urge Member States to proactively integrate digital threats—such as AI-driven disinformation, deep fakes, and online gender-based violence—into their National Action Plans (NAPs) on WPS. Furthermore, it will likely emphasize the importance of aligning these national frameworks with existing continental instruments and emerging technology governance initiatives. The Council may also advocate for the accelerated ratification and domestication of the African Union Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection. A key recommendation will be to include specific indicators on technology-facilitated violence within the African Union Continental Results Framework on Women, Peace and Security, thereby enhancing monitoring and accountability mechanisms. Finally, the PSC is expected to underscore the critical importance of promoting women’s leadership in digital governance and AI policy processes, including through the expansion of women-led innovation and mediation networks like FemWise-Africa, while encouraging Member States, Regional Economic Communities/Regional Mechanisms (RECs/RMs), and the African Union Commission to make substantial investments in digital literacy, cybersecurity capacity-building, and women-led technological solutions for early warning, conflict prevention, and sustainable peacebuilding.