Historical Challenges of UN Peacekeeping in Africa - Assignment Example

Task 3: Historical Challenges of UN Peacekeeping in Africa Since its formation in 1945, United Nation has been involved in multiple roles ranging from maintenance of peace, environmental concern, and protection of human rights from state abuse. Arguably, the most intense role that has been clearly labeled includes conflict resolution and peacekeeping. Following increased East-West dialogue, the role of UN has been stepped up, and duties and responsibilities continue to expand. After World War Two, the United Nations was seen as the new world organization that would stamp its authority in protecting nations from verge of wars. Its formation was with an aim of with promoting dignity and good international relations, uphold good environmental efforts and ensure peace through disarmament policy1. However, the recent Liberia crisis that led to ousting of its leadership has raised growing concern about the commitment of U.N in fostering peace. Throughout period, the Rwandan genocide continued the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) conflicts among many other examples have painted a bad picture of the ability of U.N to upheld peace2. The military action in Libya that led to increasing loss of lives and rise in humanitarian crisis was a big blow to the United Nations goal of sustainability of peace. In this paper, I examine historical functions of United Nations in Africa and beyond. The continued effort to ensure peaceful coexistence in Africa and the historical background of the United Nations and peacekeeping missions in Africa will form the basis of this essay. In addition, I argue that there have been many controversies. History of Peacekeeping Missions in Africa Peacekeeping has been ratified by the Charter of the United Nations as an important strategy that gives the Security Council powers to take collective action to ensure peace prevail. There are two primary means of promoting peace through the United Nations, firstly the troops that comprise representatives from member countries is set to undertake the mission. In other incidences, the United Nations authorizes regional bodies such as North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), African Union and other regional bodies to undertake peaceful settlement of peace. Today, Africa is the biggest source troops to the peacekeeping missions. Coincidentally, Africa has seen the worst history of civil unrest, destabilization of the government over the past three decades. African continent bore the greatest brunt of peacekeeping mission. As early as 1960-64, Congo experienced severe civil unrest leading to intervention by the UN through formation of United Nations Operations in Congo (ONUC. The 1988-91 saw establishment of United Nations Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM), 1992-1993 Somalia peacekeeping missions among many others. The ultimate consequence of these missions has been either success in establishing peace as witnessed in Ivory Coast or temporary cessation of war. In essence, the peacekeeping mission has been substantially successful in securing short-term peace. As witnessed in the first Angola crisis in 1988-1991 and the subsequent repeat of the chaos in 1991-1995 and 1995-97 United Nations Angola Verification Mission three3. While the success has been interlaced with points of frustration and disappointing repeated chaos, the ultimate goal of peace should be measured by the long-term outcome rather than intermittent challenges. Arguably, Africa emergence from the colonial rule and subsequent dictatorial government has been thorny issue. Many believe that Africa cultural background and autonomy ought to be perpetuated and respected by the United Nations, as well as other organizations. Notably, the interference in internal affairs has been a standard argument for those oppose to intervention of the United Nations into African nations that have been trapped in civil wars for many years. Those who agree with the intervention believe that through external force, individual nations would uphold dignity and respect to human rights, a subject that has put African countries in the spotlight for many years. It is, therefore, clear that the work of noted Nations of ensuring peaceful co-existence and balancing humanitarian and human right violation has been met with both rejection and acceptance at equal measures. Africa continent present a good case study that allows wide analysis of how U.N was appreciated or criticized in line with its Charter mandate as formulated in 1945. Role of United Nations in African Crisis Today, African continent is a living testimony of continued intervention of the United Nations to foster peace and mutual understanding. Currently, there are eight ongoing peacekeeping missions across the continent that has continued to provide temporary conflict cessation. Namely, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) continues to offer peacekeeping I the war-torn Mali following succession uprising4. The body comprises of the army unit formed by the member states whose mandate is to ensure that there is ceasefire as long-term solutions are sought. While argument that U.N is patronizing Africa nations, it is vital to examine the wider picture. Before the entry of U.N peacekeeping, Liberia had witnessed over 20,000 deaths of civilians and the trend would be far much grave5. The MINUSMA work has been incredible, today, Mali school-going children continue to attend classes, and transport and other services have been restored after an extended period of unrest. Secondly, Africa Union and United Nations came together to end Darfur bloodshed under the umbrella body of UNAMID, United Nations Operations in Darfur peacekeeping mission. It is no doubt that the long period of bloodshed and civilian unrest of over 30 years has been contained. The intervention of the peacekeeping mission saw reduction of mass killing incidents by over 70% by 2006. However, the work of peacekeepers is not to fight, they are non-partisans, but their presence in war-torn Darfur has brought into focus the need for government, rebels to ceasefire and embarks on peaceful conflict resolution6. Thirdly, the NUN through the United Nations Mission in Liberia in 2003 is another African peacekeeping mission that was successful executed. The operations led to protection of civilians life through erecting refugee camps and provided humanitarian services such as food and medical supplies. United Nations in South Sudan is perhaps the most recent united nation peacekeeping mission that continues to stabilize the newly formed government. Sadly, African continent continue to witness high cases of civilians unrest after election periods, this has seen escalating cases of civil wars and subsequently humanitarian crisis. In line with the United Nation Security Council, many missions have been conducted in African continent to stabilize governments and restore order. However, many pan-Africans have expressed reservations about the extent of U.N involvement in African affairs. Although many agree with the efforts to ensure peace is restored, some observers argue that it is the new form of colonialism that endorses particular leaders seen to poses westernized ideologies7. Because of the perception of the western ideas and fear of neo-colonialism, the United Nations efforts to ensure peace as number one priority in its agenda has been greeted with mixed reactions. The genocide that was witnessed in Rwanda in 1994 remains one of the greatest failure of the United Nations. The event that saw ethnic cleansing should not have been witnessed had this body moved with greater speed. Today, the heinous acts of Rwandan genocide continue to portray the United Nation Security Council as a failed organization. Whereas the UN has been in the forefront to avert the repeat of the same incidence, critics still argue that the UN has failed in its mission. Essentially, the N mandate was to prevent any war, occurrence of civil unrest across the continent with the recent South Sudan humanitarian crisis and massive loss of lives, many think that the U.N in its mandate. Presence of any conflict anywhere in the globe is interpreted as a failure of the United Nations machinery. Arguably, the United Nations have substantially been achieved its mandate in maintenance of world peace has been witnessed by its involvement in African crisis. Evidently, the success of United Nations Operations in Cote dIvoire (UNOCI) in 2004 saw the culmination of the war, and restoration of smooth transition government was an overwhelming success to the peacekeeping mission. United Nation Mission in DRC The UN stabilization mission in DRC dubbed United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in DRC (MONUSCO) was founded. It successfully calmed the escalating senseless killings of civilians in 1999 after the noted Nation Security Council passed 1279 and 1291 resolutions8. As an important mandate, the interest of this organization was to ensure peaceful co-existence among communities and deter government and rebel units from butchering innocent civilians. It remains one of the clear manifestation of the United Nations commitment to ensure peace prevails across the globe. The war in Ituri, Dongo and Kivu had caused an escalated number of deaths, and thus resolutions were fast track and $ 8.73 billion fund allocated for the mission. Evidently, this is the uttermost commitment to ensuring peace; those criticizing the efforts of this organization ought to examine how series of emergency talks were held to expedite the mission to the DRC. The deployment of military to the hard hit areas to offer humanitarian assistance, uplift victims for medical assistance was witnessed. Upon the intervention of the United Nations, incidences of conflict declined and the casualties significantly reduced. The subsequent years saw the DRC conflict declined as the government embarked on the recovery. Using DRC crisis, it is evident that the work of the United Nations peacekeeping mission has been fruitful. Restoring peace in DRC was a tall order to the Organization of African Union, now AU. The speed of execution remains he challenge for the organization. In order to examine the performance of this body, it is crucial to look at the extent of involvement in African crises and the number of a successful mission. Today, Ivory Coast is back to the progressive economic track because of United Nations efforts. Challenges Facing United Nations One of the fundamental obstacles facing the UN is lack of indigenous leaders commitment to sustainable peace. While the effort to restore Somalia from devastating effects of rebels had significantly succeeded, the renewed conflicts have created impression that the U.N mission in Somalia failed. As much as the task can provide temporary cessation of war, the government of involved nation ought to undertake deliberate measures that would ensure sustainability of peace. Peacekeeping missions have limited duration; the assurance of a permanent ceasefire is widely unknown. Secondly, limited funds to carry out operation remain a huge undoing to peacekeeping operations. Today, the Security Council approves peacekeeping based on the availability of finance and logistical constraints continue to limit the UN operations. The DRC crisis in 1999 and the Darfur humanitarian needs became overwhelming as supplies of food experience unprecedented shortage in 20019. Because of the limited capacity of supplies and foreseeability nature of these crises, the United Nations missions face logistical and operational challenges. The vast DRC forests made accessibility of humanitarian aid difficult, despite these hurdles; this organization has substantially strived to meet its charter stipulation using the limited resources. Resource shortages have been a great hindrance in fulfilling its obligation; peacekeeping in Africa has not been solely an issue of marinating peace, humanitarian aid is now the fundamental. In addition, peacekeeping has been troubled by continued rigid position and slowed negotiations among the conflicting parties resulting in the extension of the duration even beyond two years. Security Council continues to experience cyclic conflicts despite existence of peacekeeping forces. Moreover, the biggest challenge to peacekeeping missions all over the world is the absence of a UN standing army. Many operations are constituted based on willing member states. As of December 2013, there are 98,200 military troops engaged in peacekeeping. Africa continent contributes up to 44,000 with European Union providing about 6,000 members10. As a result of the skewed individual continent contributions, there have been ideological concerns within the military action resulting in slowed progress. Because of the existence of non-interference policy and growing concerns on the respect to individual nations sovereignty, United Nations Security Council has been the last option in conflicting resolution. Before the UN embarks on military action, it should seek authority from the Security Council. The rising political ideologies difference within the authorizing bodies continues to slow the processes that are aimed at peace restoration. The future of African peace-keeping troops lies entirely in the commitment of African leaders to end individual leadership wrangles. Besides, through formation of standing army, the UN peace operations would be expedited. United Nations operations in Africa have been significantly successful because of four main reasons. Firstly, it has fostered peaceful conflict resolution in Ivory Coast, it has promoted the transition of power in the 2009 Egypt uprising and it continues to pursue peace in Somalia. Secondly, the United Nations mission in the past has offered humanitarian crisis as witnessed by Darfur, DRC refugee camps11. These camps are established as safe havens for women, children and disadvantaged groups that are often severe affected by internal conflicts. Tribal clashes and ethnic cleansing witnessed during the Rwandan crisis of 1993-94; the UN peace efforts have fostered peace that continues to prevail. Why United Nation Peacekeeping has been Successful One of the objectives of the peacekeeping mission is to ensure a ceasefire, repatriation of affecting communities, disarmament of combatants and establishing long-term framework of sustainable peace. Analyzing achievement of this organization using peacekeeping missions in African shows that there have been incredible results in DRC operations that began in 1999 and the recent Sierra Leone chaos. In Sierra Leone, the UN supported reintegration of over 48,000 ex-fighters. Certainly, this is a significant step towards achieving rehabilitated rogue fighters. In DRC, the UN sponsored repatriation of Rwandese, salvaged over 4,000 children who were on the verge of dying due to inaccessible food and medical attention. Besides, in Cote dIvoire, the UN peace mission saw the disarmament of rebels, and this was seen in DRC. Besides, the mine action campaign was started in DRC as the wider duty of UN efforts on ensuring peace building in 2003. Through United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) and rapid response unit, the UN has salvaged civilians from the excruciating humanitarian crisis. Today, the UN has well trained personnel tasked with providing evacuation services and medical attention to victims of heinous civil unrest. Arguably, the UN charter of peace does not limit evaluation of performance on the basis of the ceasefire alone. Based on the review of several African countries case studies, it is quite substantial that this organization has averted grave humanitarian crisis. In 2006, over 200,000 persons were moved to the refugee camp after excruciating effects of wars coupled with famine and drought12. Without the intervention of the UN operatives, the war world has caused more casualties, and children and women would have perished in large numbers. Today, many critics of the United Nations are quick to points out the continued conflicts in Israel-Palestine border disputes. Moreover, they are quick to criticize the Libyan crisis and ousting of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt as political ideologies conferred by the UN mission in Africa. Those who oppose UN peacekeeping success are embroiled in focusing on the political landscape of the veto powers conferred by some states while omitting the series of peacekeeping achievements that the UN has continued to pursue in Africa and beyond. In essence, the UN through its Security Council organ remains a custodian of human lives. The leadership wrangles that often culminate in conflicts as recently witnessed in the newly formed nation, Southern Sudan. There is no doubt that UN together with the regional bodies has collaborated to arrest conflict by sending troops to protect civilians from harsh political squabbles13. With vast nature of African continent with unique challenges in political landscapes and ideological differences, the UN has persistently pursued peace while ensuring it remains neutral on the internal political leadership of the native nations. Though decades of political upheavals in Angola, the UN through the three peacekeeping missions finally fostered lasting peace. As a result, Angola today is a country that is looked up to by its neighbors to provide regional leadership for political, economic and social growth. While cases of conflicts continue to characterize DRC, Southern Sudan, and Somalia, the framework for ending conflicts were already in place. The uniqueness of extremist groups in Somalia has seen United Nations embark on using regional formed army unit called AMISON to try stabilizing the government. Fundamentally, the success of the UN security operatives is best observed by focusing on the number of countries that behave been salvaged from the verge of self-destruction. Based on the given cases, Angola, CotedIvoire, Sierra Leone DRC and Sudan are some of the countries that have established governments today after a period of political squabbles14. It is true that the work of bringing and sustaining peace has been underrated with critiques focusing failure of UN to end historical conflicts in Somalia, Middle East countries such as Israel and Palestine wars. However, failure to intervene promptly in the Rwanda crisis of 1993-94 that later caused the infamous Rwanda massacre has been the greatest blame of this organization in African conflicts. Much Africa regional organization such as Economic Organization of West Africa States (ECOWAS) could not handle Sierra Leone and Cote dIvoire crisis. It was until the UN Security Council passed resolution to send its troops to ensure peace is restored. Through many decades, the UN resolution on peace in Africa and elsewhere in the globe has been fundamental to ensuring peace is restored. It is insensible to blame the organization for recurrence of conflicts because the nature of these conflicts is political. The dynamic nature of politics remains squarely on the leadership commitment to peaceful conflict resolution. Conclusion Based on historical analysis of success and challenges of the United Nations in Africa peacekeeping mission, it is certain that the organization has substantially met its mandate in three critical areas. Firstly, it has established peace in hostile regions such as Angola and Sierra Leone. Besides, it continues to offer humanitarian assistance in hostile Darfur and Somalia. Lastly, the UN has facilitated smooth transition of power in Egypt and Libya despite incidences of violence. However, the ultimate long-term peace rests squarely on leaders. As an organization, the UN has avert crisis successfully, and it continues to so, but the final success rest in leadership of warring nations. Works Cited Beswick, Danielle. "Peacekeeping, Regime Security and ?African Solutions to African Problems?: exploring motivations for Rwandas involvement in Darfur." Third World Quarterly (2010): 38-47. Web. . Cronin, Bruce, and Ian Hurd. The UN Security Council and the Politics of International Authority. Taylor & Francis, 2008. 368-89. Print. Kane, Angela. "Disarmament Efforts in DRC, Darfur and Sierra Leone." New Zealand Lectures on Disarmament. N.p., 2014. 213-18. Print. Miller, Eric. The Inability of Peacekeeping to Address the Security Dilemma: A Case Study of the Rwandan-Congolese Security Dilemma and the United Nations Mission in The Congo. Saarbru?cken, Germany: Lambert Academic Publishing, 2010. Print. Owens, Daniel. "The Hybridization of Peacekeeping: The United Nations Mission to Liberia Revisited." (2012): 67-81. Print. Powell, II, and Jeffrey H. Amnesty, Reconciliation and Reintegration: The International Community and the Rwandan Process. Ft. Belvoir: Defense Technical Information Center, 2008. 267-89. Print. Shaw, Mark, and Jakkie Cilliers. South Africa and Peacekeeping in Africa. Halfway House, South Africa: Institute for Defence Policy, 1995. 181-214. Print. Skora, Patrick W. "Sierra Leone Crisis." Analysis of Security Sector Reform in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone A Comparison of Current Versus Historical Capabilities. Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School, 2010. 32-41. Print. Vamathevan, Archana. "A Complex Dynamic: The Relationship Between the United Nations and Regional Institutions in International Peacekeeping." (2012): 112-14. Print. Walling, Carrie Booth. All Necessary Measures: The United Nations and Humanitarian Intervention. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013. Print. Read More