Abstract. The phrase “security and development” is popular in contemporary international programs and scientific research on African issues. Politicians and scientists not accidentally connect together these two concepts: there is a growing international understanding that it is impossible to achieve sustainable development in Africa without the security of the population, in crises and conflicts, when people’s lives are exposed to risk and economic transformation fails. “Agenda 2063”, program adopted in 2015 by the African Union (AU), designating the purposes, which should be performed, called prevention and the conflict resolution: “By 2020 all guns will be silent. Africa shall be free from armed conflicts, terrorism, extremism, intolerance and gender-based violence… The continent will be drugs free, with no human trafficking, where organized crime and other forms of criminal networks, such as arms trade and piracy, are ended. Africa shall have ended the illicit trade in and proliferation of small and light weapons, organized crime, arms trafficking and piracy. By 2063, it will be able to ensure peace and protect its citizens and their interests.” Since 1948, the UN carried out over 70 peacekeeping operations (PKO) worldwide. In Africa, the most successful missions were in Sierra Leone, where it was succeeded to stop a civil war, in Ethiopia and Eritrea where the end was put to opposition of two states, in Liberia (2003–2018), where the situation stabilized after the 2nd civil war. However, some African conflicts are still ongoing, new hotbeds of tension emerging, and seven (out of fourteen) peacekeeping operations are currently under way in Africa. The conference held on April 3, 2019 at the Institute for African Studies RAS was devoted to the roots and components of African conflicts, the role of international and regional organizations, Africans themselves, as well as external actors from the countries of the West and East in stabilizing the situation on the continent. The conference was attended by over 50 scientists, teachers, graduate students and students of Russian research and educational institutions, including: Institute for African Studies RAS, Institute of Europe RAS, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN), MGIMO, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow State Linguistic University, Tula University, Institute of Financial and Economic Security at the National Research Nuclear University “MEPhI”.