ABSTRACT
The continent of Africa has witnessed many of the most significant genocides and mass atrocities of the past half-century. This chapter documents experiences in the region for advancing atrocity prevention where important lessons for coordinating regional and domestic prevention policy can be drawn. These include a number of successes in preventing the escalation of crises into potential episodes of mass violence in countries such as Côte d’Ivoire, Burundi, Guinea, Kenya, and Mali. It analyses the role of regional governance through the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and national and local atrocity-prevention mechanisms. It contributes to a significant deficit in existing understanding about the sequence and combination of prevention tools that are effective in a range of different context to advance implementation strategies with a regional focus.
