Leaders from across Africa, together with international development financiers and aid agencies, have made a powerful appeal for greater investment in conflict prevention and local peacebuilding as the continent faces a rising tide of insecurity and economic fragility.

The call came at the opening of the Africa Resilience Forum (ARF) , hosted by the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire , where participants emphasized that over 250 million people in Africa now live in countries directly affected by conflict.

The forum, convening policymakers, humanitarian actors, and private sector leaders, focused on shifting the continent’s approach from crisis response to long-term prevention — a shift many speakers described as both a moral and economic necessity .

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