Assembly/AU/3 (X) Page 1 REPORT OF THE PEACE AND SECURITY COUNCIL ON ITS ACTIVITIES AND THE STATE OF PEACE AND SECURITY IN AFRICA I. INTRODUCTION 1. According to Article 7(q) of the Protocol Relating to the Establishment of the Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union (AU), the PSC shall “submit, though its Chairperson, regular reports to the Assembly on its activities and the state of peace and security in Africa.” The present report, prepared in conformity with the said article, covers the activities undertaken by the Council during the period July 2007 to January 2008, and provides an overview of the state of peace and security on the continent during the period. II. SIGNATURE AND RATIFICATION OF THE PSC PROTOCOL 2. At the time of finalizing this report, 51 member States had signed the Protocol, while 43 had both signed and ratified it. Côte d’Ivoire signed on 27 February 2004 and subsequently ratified the Protocol on 24 August 2007. It deposited its instrument of ratification on 3 October 2007. Two member States are yet to sign and ratify the Protocol, namely, Cape Verde and Eritrea. The following member States have signed the Protocol but have not yet ratified it: Central African Republic (CAR), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Liberia, Mauritania, Seychelles and Somalia. III. MEMBERSHIP OF THE PSC 3. As stipulated in Article 5 (1) of the Protocol, the PSC is composed of fifteen (15) members with equal rights and which are elected as follows: 10 members elected for a two (2) year term; and five (5) members elected for a three (3) year term. The Assembly would recall that the current members of the PSC for a three year-term, namely, Angola, Algeria, Ethiopia, Gabon and Nigeria, were elected by the Executive Council, in Addis Ababa, in January 2007. The mandate of the newly elected PSC members began on 18 March 2007. The current alphabetical list of the Council members is as follows: Angola, Algeria, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and Uganda. 4. The mandate of those PSC members elected for a two-year (2) term, namely, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Malawi, Rwanda, Senegal and Uganda expires in March 2008. Therefore, at the time of finalizing this Report, the Commission had made preparations for the scheduled election of the ten (10) members of the PSC with a mandate of two (2) years during the 10th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council. IV. ROTATION OF THE CHAIRMANSHIP OF THE PSC 5. In conformity with Rule 23 of the Rules of Procedure of the PSC, the chairmanship of the PSC rotates among its members on a monthly basis and following the alphabetical order in English of the list of the PSC members. During the period under review, the chairmanship of the PSC rotated as follows: