This study evaluates the process of managing conflicts within different sovereign states in the Southern and Eastern regions in Africa, particularly considering measures taken by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) to attain security and peace and the challenges being faced. An explicit examination of the divergent challenges in the COMESA sub region highlights the fact that sub-regional and regional organizations need to apply more effective and efficient conflict management frameworks concerning conflicts within different states. A question that is of concern regarding this research paper is: Owing to its large size and political divergences, what efforts or action had been taken by COMESA with regard to managing civil and political conflicts within different states with sovereign status, specifically in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Northern Uganda and South Sudan and Sudan? Realist Intergovernmentalism theory was used to prove the state-centered approach to institutions, showing that the governments in COMESA have not positively controlled the regional integration’s speed and level which results in the prevalence of intrastate conflicts. Qualitative research method involving multi case study was used, involving both primary and secondary data. The proposed solution of this study is based on encouraging COMESA as a sub-regional organization in not relying on an almost fully intergovernmental perspective as they look forward to effectively managing intra-state conflicts. Instead, they should additionally endeavor to rely on the liberal variant of the theory of intergovernmentalism.

Keywords: COMESA; Peace and Security; Intra-state Conflicts; Realist Intergovernmentalism; Conflict Management.