Assembly/AU/3(XIV) Page 5 VI. STATE OF PEACE AND SECURITY IN AFRICA 18. The period under consideration was marked by sustained efforts aimed at accelerating the resolution of the crises and conflicts the Continent was undergoing while affirming Africa’s leadership in this respect, particularly through the AU. Two major events need to be mentioned. These were, on the one hand, the Special Session of the Assembly of the Union on Consideration and Resolution of Conflicts in Africa, which took place in Tripoli, Libya, on 31 August 2009. That meeting culminated in the adoption of the Tripoli Declaration (so-called) on the Elimination of Conflicts and Sustainable Promotion of Peace in Africa (SP/Assembly/PS/Decl.(I)) and a Plan of Action (SP/Assembly/PS/Plan(I)). The Special Session was clearly a success in as much as it enabled African leaders to agree on measures that need to be taken to deal with the challenges that have continued to face Africa in the area of peace and security. 19. The other event of significance was the Peace and Security Council (PSC) meeting at the level of Heads of State and Government, held in Abuja, Nigeria, on 29 October 2009, to consider the report of the AU High-Level Panel on Darfur, established pursuant to PSC Decision of 21 July 2008, and chaired by the former President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki. This Panel submitted a comprehensive and quality report articulating a global and coherent approach to the crisis in Darfur which it rightly defined as a manifestation of a more global crisis affecting the whole of Sudan, resulting from the inequality which has continued to characterise relations between the centre and the Sudanese peripheries. It emerges that the Darfur crisis cannot see a lasting solution except within the framework of the resolution of the Sudanese crisis on the basis of sustained democratic transformation of the country as articulated in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of January 2005. 20. The following paragraphs present an account of the development in the various situations on the ground and the efforts deployed by the African Union to help resolve the situations or consolidate peace where it has been restored. a) Madagascar 21. The efforts aimed at restoring constitutional order are still deadlocked, in spite of the sustained efforts deployed by the AU, in close collaboration with the other members of the International Contact Group on Madagascar (ICG-M). Following the second consultative meeting of the ICG-M in Addis Ababa, on 22 July 2009, the Chefs de File of the Malagasy political camps met in Maputo, from 5 to 9 August 2009, under the leadership of former President Joaquim Chissano, head of the SADC Mediation Team, assisted by the Special Envoys of the AU, the OIF and the UN. The meeting concluded with the adoption of the Charter of the Transition and the Maputo Agreements. In particular, they agreed on a neutral, inclusive, peaceful and consensual transition, which should not exceed fifteen months, starting from the date of the signing of the Maputo Agreements. 22. On 8 September 2009, and in a context marked by difficulties in the implementation of the Maputo Agreements, the de facto authorities unilaterally decided to form a National Union Government, without the participation of the three other political movements. In its 202th Meeting held on 10 September 2009, the PSC expressed its deep concern and emphasized that the Charter of the Transition and