Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, Namibia's President Hage Geingob and Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat (R-L) jointly break down a wall symbolizing anti-corruption barriers in Kigali, capital of Rwanda, on Dec. 9, 2019. Rwanda and Qatar on Monday hosted an anti-corruption award ceremony in Kigali, where leaders showed anti-corruption determination. (Xinhua/Lyu Tianran)

African heads of state gather Sunday at the headquarters of the African Union for a summit meeting due to focus on how the body can play a more prominent role in resolving conflicts proliferating across the continent.

The two-day summit has taken as its theme "Silencing the Guns," yet AU officials are well aware of their failure to achieve the goal adopted in 2013 of ending "all wars in Africa by 2020."

In remarks ahead of the summit, AU Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat painted a bleak picture of the continent's security situation, citing extremist threats stretching from the Sahel to Somalia.

The "missed deadline" to silence the guns, he said, "reveals the complexity of the security situation in Africa."

The focus on conflicts this year marks a departure from multiple years of summits dedicated to reforming the AU and the implementation of a continent-wide free trade area.

Though some progress has been made recently in Central African Republic and Sudan, long-running conflicts in places like Libya and South Sudan have been joined by new crises from Cameroon to Mozambique.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who will take over from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as AU chair, appears attuned to these big challenges.

In a speech to South Africa-based diplomats in late January, he warned that conflict "continues to hamper" development.

The AU "must be more proactive" in responding to conflicts instead of leaving the job to outside powers, Naledi Pandor, South Africa's international relations minister, told AFP.

"The fact that anyone can step in means a gap has been allowed by us, and so I think we have to act faster, be more responsive when matters are affecting our continent," she said.

For his part, Faki encouraged a focus on "root causes" of conflicts and urged African leaders to pursue "innovative solutions that put the military solution into perspective by combining it with measures from other areas, notably development."

The AU will have to overcome internal disputes and insufficient financing for peacekeeping missions if it wants to become a major player in conflict resolution.

One priority for Ramaphosa is to have the AU play a bigger role in Libya-related peace processes.

A spokeswoman for Faki complained last month that the AU "has consistently been ignored" on Libya.

But the AU's attempts to assert itself have been undermined by its own divisions.

AFP