The Challenges and Prospects of United Nations Peace-Keeping Missions in Africa: A Focus on Sudan

Abstract

The political evolution of Africa is replete with conflicts which have unfortunately gone beyond the capabilities of the continent to resolve without resort to foreign assistance especially in the critical field of military assistance. This study discusses the concept and practice of the United Nations peacekeeping missions in Africa, the challenges facing such operations as well as the prospects of resolving them. It conceptualizes peacekeeping, adopts the collective security paradigm in discussing the changing operational environment that has transformed UN traditional peacekeeping operations to the contemporary peacekeeping methods and the challenges that has led to half-baked results in such African operations. The study highlights the challenges and the prospects of these operations, recommends an improvement in the quality of preparation, planning, monitoring and evaluation of the processes by the Security Council, adoption of clear and actionable mandates by the UN, proper coordination between the Security Council and countries contributing troops, good risk analysis and transparency across the chain of command among others as necessary steps to address the challenges. It concludes that the UN has the capacity to surmount these challenges if adequate support is given to it by member countries.