The Head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC Regional Delegation for Central Africa, Yann Bonzon, has stated that Artificial Intelligence; AI represents both a promise and a peril.
Gov’t, ICRC & Diplomats at symposium on the use of Artificial Intelligence in armed conflict
He said their duty at the ICRC is to ensure that AI serves human dignity and not dehumanisation adding that no machine can replace the moral judgment of a human being when it comes to matters of life and death.
He was speaking in Yaounde on November 25, 2025 at the start of a three-day high-level international symposium on the theme: “International Humanitarian Law and Artificial Intelligence in Cameroon: African Perspectives.”
The event that was presided at by the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Minette Libom Li Likeng, was organised by the Regional Delegation of ICRC for Central Africa and the University of Yaounde II through its Centre for Studies and Research in International and Community Law abbreviated in French as CEDIC.
The symposium was an occasion for national and international experts to reconcile the use of AI in the conduct of hostilities with the obligations of International Humanitarian Law, IHL as well as with the resulting humanitarian and ethical considerations.
Stating that AI must serve human dignity and not dehumanisation, Bonzon said new and emerging technologies are transforming the way armed conflicts are conducted. “The combined use of cyber operations, traditional weapons, and AI, now central in weapon system and military decision making, is at the heart of debates on the evolution of armed conflicts.”
He said for over 160 years, ICRC has been working in conflict zones across the world serving lives, dignity and humanity. He noted that their mandate which emanated from the Geneva Conventions is based on a simple but key principle of “even war has limits!” he said the limits are those of the IHL that protect non-combatant, those who prohibit the use of force, and looking for ways to reduce sufferings where they are avoidable.
“In all the contexts, from Sahel to the horn of Africa, the Great Lakes, all with urban zones of conflicts, the ICRC reacts each day by recalling the fundamental principle: human dignity is not negotiable even in the midst of chaos of armed conflict,” Bonzon maintained.
With evolving technologies marked by the use of sophisticated tools such as AI in military decision making, the tool is being used more and more by regular forces and armed groups. In that complex and polarised context, Bonzon said data and the number of reliable and representative sources are rare thereby posing real challenges to ICRC in the domains of diplomatic and normative dialogue; research and advocacy; training and sensitisation; and protection of victims.
Touching on AI as a revolution with many faces, humanitarian challenges and ethics in the digital era, and Africa at the heart of the stakes, Bonzon outlined the crucial role the African Union, African Universities, national societies of the Red Cross and public institutions must play in the normative and ethical framework of AI and war.
Minister Minette Libom Li Likeng told reporters that AI is already a reality in Cameroon and efforts are in place to ensure its use at the service of humanity. She remarked that AI has caused a shift in the way of doing things as she appreciated the holding of the symposium touching on the ethics of the use of such a key tool.
“The symposium will enable jurists, as it is organised in collaboration with the University of Yaounde II that has engaged reflection in the domain, to see what could be done by Africa in general and particularly Cameroon, so that AI that is alarmingly being developed should not be a destructive tool to humanity. AI is a teleguided autonomous arm that is fast becoming a challenge to the legal framework of the IHL. A robot can’t substitute human beings, so who takes responsibility of the damages it causes?” the Minister questioned.
She said under her Ministry, Cameroon is already engaged in the elaboration of a strategic document on AI at the service of humanity. To master its use, she said, Cameroonians must be trained and to receive training, we must have the infrastructure including a centre that protects the data we produce. “It is from the data that trained Cameroonians in AI could be educated to come up with the Cameroon or African version of AI or adjusting what is produced out of the continent taking into account African realities,” Libon Li Likeng stated.
Speaking for the University of Yaounde II, the Vice Rector, Prof. Mathias Eric Owona Nguini said the objectives of the symposium are related to the state of the regulation of AI within armed conflicts. “With the use of cyber tools in conflicts, you have new legal problems cropping up that have to be resolved.
“The symposium will put to the limelight the challenges Africa is exposed to in the use of AI in armed conflict. The eruption of AI in armed conflicts has created other legal problems that have to be closely looked into particularly the issue of taking responsibility. To whom should the responsibility of the damages caused by the use of AI be attributed? That is one of the challenges of this symposium – getting an answer to the question and contributing to the putting in place of a common African position on the issue,” he noted.
Other speakers at the opening included the National President of the Cameroon Red Cross, Cécile Akame Mfoumou; the Director of CEDIC, Prof. Christopher Nsoh and the Head of the Department of International Law in IRIC, Prof. Alain Didier Olinga, who delivered the inaugural lesson.
By Nformi Sonde Kinsai