AI-enabled weapons have caused documented harms across Africa, but an accountability vacuum created by fragmented responsibility has resulted in governance asymmetry with which importing states are grappling. With little insight into how the embedded software selects targets, navigates and decides whether to engage, and still reliant on foreign suppliers, the continent remains poorly equipped to govern the risks this technology poses.
AI experts George Gor and Kofi Yeboah provide three key steps to addressing the gap:
- African states should define acceptable conditions for importing and using these weapons.
- Procurement should be tied to supplier compliance, using the African Union for leverage beyond any single state’s reach.
- The African Union and regional bodies should build independent capacity to inspect, test and audit these weapons, without which standards carry little force.
