African Union Commission chair Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has challenged researchers and academic institutions to look at the importance of research in stopping conflicts in Africa.
Dlamini-Zuma said the AU was concerned about last week's slaughter of civilians in South Sudan, saying every unnatural death was "one death too many".
She said there was a need to look at how research could be used to understand the root causes of these conflicts "because we cannot look at South Sudan in isolation".
Dlamini-Zuma said the AU was monitoring the peace process in South Sudan and the young nation needed assistance to build strong institutions.
She was speaking to journalists after delivering her public lecture on the role of research universities in the development of Africa at the University of Pretoria yesterday.
Dlamini-Zuma decried the systemic disinvestment and under-investment in African universities. This was because of the notion that Africa should concentrate on primary and secondary education .
African universities battled chronic infrastructure backlogs, high teaching loads, poor facilities and poorly paid academic staff.
Africa accounted for less that 1% of the content in science and technology journals and filed only 0.24% of patents.
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package. 
