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resolution. South Africa organized a meeting of the Nonaligned Movement at the UN to
seek a peaceful resolution. Encouraged by the African Union’s call, presidents Thabo
Mbeki of South Africa, Olusegun Obansanjo of Nigeria, and Abdoulaye Wade of
Senegal sent a letter calling on the Bush administration to work earnestly to resolve the
crisis diplomatically.
The Bush administration reacted angrily to this request. At the time, America was
seeking a second resolution from the Security Council explicitly requiring the use of
force after a given period, if Iraq kept flouting UN resolutions to dismantle her weapons
programs. Angola, Cameroon and Guinea represented sub-Saharan Africa on the Security
Council. The United States, Britain and Spain heavily lobbied the former European
colonies to support the second resolution that would trigger military action. France,
Russia, and China opposed unilateral use of military force against Iraq. Of all the
countries that resisted a military campaign against Iraq, France was in the lead. France
intensively lobbied her former colonies Cameroon and Guinea together with Angola, a
former Portuguese colony, not to support any resolution granting the use of force. The
three African members declined to reveal whether or not they would support a second
resolution advocating the use of force.
Reports indicated that the Bush administration reacted negatively to overtures
seeking a diplomatic solution made by Mbeki, Obasanjo and Wade; indeed the Bush
administration threatened political and economic reprisals. At the height of these events,
the U.S. briefly closed its embassies and consulates and suspended military cooperation
with Nigeria. Nigerian officials and opinion leaders viewed those actions as a way of
punishing Nigeria for its failure to support the US whose diplomats denied the allegation.
Convention