The key to resolving and preventing conflicts in Africa is empowering citizens and decentralizing political systems currently controlled by power elites, participants at a two-day Tokyo symposium on African conflicts agreed Thursday.
"We need a balance, a decentralized system in our countries, and to involve all the levels of our population so that . . . they can all participate and contribute to achieving peace," said former Mali President Amadou Toure at the first day of the conference.
Toure said many ethnic conflicts within African countries such as Rwanda are caused by political systems that permit mass murder by autocratic rulers and tightly restrict media.