UNITED NATION PEACEKEEPING IN AFRICA; EFFECTIVENESS AND PROBLEMS

UN PEACEKEEPING IN AFRICA;   EFFECTIVENESS AND PROBLEMS

ABSTRACT

The
research provides an appraisal of UN PEACEKEEPING IN AFRICA .It investigates
the effectiveness and problems of the mission with a possible aim of proffering
recommendations. The study appraises the structural nature of Un Peacekeeping
in Africa.

1.1   BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The
UN Security Council authorizes peace operations by an affirmative vote of nine
of the fifteen members without a veto from the five permanent members: the
United States, China, France, Russia, the UK. The Security Council has
authorized more than fifty peace operations in the years since the Cold War.

The UN deploys peacekeeping
forces to prevent or contain fighting; stabilize post-conflict zones; help
implement peace accords; and assist democratic transitions. To achieve those
goals, the UN outlines the
following peace-building activities:

  • Disarmament,
    demobilization, and reintegration of ex-combatants;
  • Landmine
    removal and associated activities;
  • Rule-of-law
    related activities;
  • Human
    rights protection and promotion;
  • Electoral
    assistance;
  • Support
    for the restoration of state authority; and
  • Promotion
    of social and economic recovery and development.

The UN generally follows three principles
for deploying peacekeepers:

  • Main
    parties to the conflict must consent;
  • Peacekeepers
    should remain impartial but not neutral; and
  • Peacekeepers
    cannot use force except in self-defense and defense of the mandate.

However,
UN peacekeepers are increasingly deployed to war zones when not all the main
parties have consented, such as in Mali and eastern DRC. There is also mounting
international pressure for peacekeepers to play a more robust role in
protecting civilians. Despite the principle of impartiality, UN peacekeepers
have been tasked with offensive operations against designated enemy combatants,
as in Mali and the DRC. “Contemporary mandates have often blurred the lines
separating peacekeeping, stabilization, counterinsurgency, counterterrorism,
atrocity prevention, and state-building,” George Washington University’s Paul
D. Williams writes in a new CFR
report.

CHAPTER 1

1.1     
BACKGROUND
OF THE STUDY

Determining
the effectiveness of UN mission demands investigating the structure and how are
peace operations are staffed and funded?Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan send
the most troops to UN peacekeeping missions, while the United States, Japan,
and France are the top funders. The top troop contributors
to AMISOM are Uganda, Burundi, Ethiopia,
and Kenya, and funding comes largely from the UN and the European Union. They
disconnect between those nations that send troops and those that fund missions
is often a source of conflict. Wealthy nations spend the most on peacekeeping,
yet they send relatively few troops; meanwhile, countries that either sends
troops or whose citizens are directly affected by peacekeeping missions often
have less say in how they are designed and mandated.

A
2014 internal
review of peacekeeping practices
related to civilian protection exposed some of these tensions. Researchers
found that peacekeepers failed to protect civilians on several occasions.
Countries that fund the annual UN peacekeeping budget
of nearly $8 billion were angered by the
findings, while troop Contributing Countries (TCCs) demanded raises to the
reimbursement rates their soldiers receive for serving in UN missions, rates
which had not increased in more than a decade. (The UN reimburses countries that contribute troops
a little more than $1,000 per soldier per month, and AMISOM troops now earn
roughly the same allowances as UN peacekeepers.)Both India
and Brazil
have cited their countries’ personnel contributions to UN peacekeeping in their
bids to become permanent members of the Security Council, and several African
governments have complained about having little say in the design and mandating
of UN operations on the continent. “They would like to escape the tutelage of
the UN in future crises,” says says Richard Gowan, an expert on
multilateral security institutions at the European Council on Foreign
Relations.

Leaders
in Africa and within the UN have called for African forces to play a larger
role in securing peace and stability on the continent, but budget constraints
persist. While the UN has a regular peacekeeping budget, the AU must continually
seek out donors, such as the UN, the EU, and the United States, to fund its
missions. Only 2.3 percent of the
AU’s budget comes from AU member
states.“Countries with more developed military capabilities—countries from the
OECD—need to come back into peacekeeping in a way they haven’t been in recent
years” —Bruce Jones, Brookings Institution “When the AU deploys a mission, it
always needs to find external assistance,” says GWU’s Williams. As a result,
the AU cannot quickly deploy or sustain troops in the field. “The lack of
indigenous sources of finance also undermines the AU’s credibility as a leading
player in peace and security issues on the continent and reduces its ability to
exercise ownership of particular initiatives,” he says.

Peace
operations in Africa are increasingly collaborations between the UN and AU. For
example, in Somalia, AMISOM member states provide troops while the UN provides
funding, training, logistics, and planning support. UNAMID, a UN-AU hybrid
mission in Darfur, absorbed and expanded a mission initially led solely by the
AU. 

The research intends
to investigate UN Peacekeeping in Africa; its effectiveness and problems

1.2     
STATEMENT
OF THE PROBLEM

 

The problem
confronting this research is to appraise Un Peacekeeping in Africa; its
effectiveness and problem. The research intends to investigate the nature,
operations of UN Peacekeeping in Africa

1.3     
RESEARCH
QUESTION

1      What
is the nature of UN PEACEKEEPING IN AFRICA?

2      What
is the problem encountered?

3      What
is the effectiveness of the mission?

1.4     
OBJECTIVE
OF THE STUDY

1           
To appraise UN
Peacekeeping in Africa

2           
To determine the
effectiveness of the mission

3           
To determine the
problem encountered

1.5     
SIGNIFICANCE
OF THE STUDY

1.     The study shall evaluate the nature and
progress of UN Peacekeeping in         Africa

2.     It shall elucidate the challenges and
determine its objectives

3.     The study shall  be a veritable source of information on UN Peacekeeping
in     Africa

1.6     
STATEMENT
OF THE HYPOTHESIS

1           
H0    UN Peacekeeping in Africa not significant

        H1
   UN Peacekeeping in Africa is
significant

2           
H0    The problems 
encountered  in UN Peacekeeping in
Africa is low

H1   The
problems encountered in UN Peacekeeping in Africa is high

3           
H0    The
effectiveness of UN Peacekeeping in Africa is not effective

H1    The effectiveness
of  UN Peacekeeping in Africa is
effective.

1.7     
SCOPE
OF THE STUDY

The study shall focus on the appraisal
of UN Peacekeeping in Africa. It shall determine the problems and effectiveness
of the mission.

1.8     
DEFINITION
OF TERMS

UN
MANDATE:

The
UN Security Council authorizes peace operations by an affirmative vote of nine
of the fifteen members without a veto from the five permanent members: the
United States, China, France, Russia, the UK. The Security Council has
authorized more than fifty peace operations in the years since the Cold War.

The UN deploys peacekeeping
forces to prevent or contain fighting; stabilize post-conflict zones; help
implement peace accords; and assist democratic transitions. To achieve those
goals, the UN
outlines the followingpeacebuilding activities:

  • Disarmament,
    demobilization, and reintegration of ex-combatants;
  • Landmine
    removal and associated activities;
  • Rule-of-law
    related activities;
  • Human
    rights protection and promotion;
  • Electoral
    assistance;
  • Support
    for the restoration of state authority; and
  • Promotion
    of social and economic recovery and development.

The UN generally follows three
principles for deploying peacekeepers:

  • Main
    parties to the conflict must consent;
  • Peacekeepers
    should remain impartial but not neutral; and
  • Peacekeepers
    cannot use force except in self-defense and defense of the mandate.

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