Is there an organisation that has achieved less and is more useless than the African Union ?

I know all regions want their own club to be part of. We have NAFTA, The EU, SEATO, and I am sure I am doing a disservice by missing many more. But of all of them, is their an organisation as wholly useless as the African Union.

Whenever there is a conflict, a coup, a civil war, indeed, any sort of trouble in Africa, Africans demand an African solution, at which point the Africa union is rolled out. However in each and every case they turn up, they have some meetings, they might send a few peacekeepers, but in truth nothing is solved or put right. Indeed the last time a civil war was properly dealt with was by the British in Sierra Leone, and that was in great part down to UK special forces (don't mention they were there) and a large amount of British Army training and supplying.

The African Union have in recent years sent peacekeepers to Darfur, Zaire/Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia, and in all these cases, the war has continued. When it comes to dodgy elections the African Union has intervened in Togo, Kenya and Zimbabwe , to mention but three, and in all cases the illegally elected winner of the elections has remained in office.

The other issue that should be gripping the attention of the African Union have similarly met with little success. HIV/AIDS, which is a catastrophic disease for much of Africa is hardly being addressed by the AU. When so many African leaders still fail to acknowledge the spread of AIDS by blood, it is clear the AU has had little impact.

At the moment we can read about African union attempts to sort out the crisis in Kenya. I wouldn't hold out much hope though for Kenya. If the African Union's record is anything to go by, the illegally elected leader of Kenya will hold a position within the AU within a few years.