SAMUEL azoroibe project (complete)

With the UNAMID mandate renewal under discussion at the UN Security Council, a new report released today by the International Refugee Rights Initiative provides an analysis of the joint United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) as seen by some of the civilians the force is mandated to protect. The report, is the second of a three-part study on civilian perspectives on peacekeeping forces in Africa and the findings make it clear that when the UN security Council considers the upcoming renewal of the peacekeeping mandate of UNAMID in late June, not only is this not the time for the international community to walk away, it is, in fact, time for UNAMID to step up.

The legal and policy documents of the African Union (AU) are founded on a human security paradigm that obliges the continental body to maintain a non-indifference stance on human rights abuses. This doctrine of non-indifference departs from the state-centric security principle of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which gave excessive privileges to state elites. Although the AU has intervened to address security challenges in the continent, misgivings persist that the continental body’s interventions continually favor state regimes at the expense of the human rights of ordinary citizens. Adducing the cases of the AU’s responses to the conflicts in Sudan (2004–07) and Libya (2011), this article examines the credibility of the AU’s non-indifference stance to gross human rights violations. The study contends that the undue influence of state regimes on the AU’s initiatives as well as its limited capacity for intervention raise doubts on the continental body’s purported transition from a state-centric framework to a human security paradigm.

This paper examines the role of the UN in peacekeeping operations in Africa with particular reference to the Darfur crisis in Western Region of Sudan. This is so because Sudan is rich in mineral resources. In specific terms the study will look at the various actors and causes of the Darfur crisis, the UN peacekeeping operations and its contributions in Darfur. The qualitative method is adopted and the use of secondary data will be employed for data generation and analysis as well. The study reveals the different groups involved in the Darfur conflict. The paper further proved that the competition over the scarce primary resources in Darfur-arable land and water triggered armed conflict between the Arabs and black Africans. The two rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) accused the Sudan government of discriminating along ethnic lines against the black Africans, resisted the north dominated west, took arms and attacked the government of Sudan forces. Khartoum responded by launching attacks against civilian populations as this was followed by attacks through the GoS sponsored militias known as the " Janjaweed ". The militias committed serious abuses including; excessive killing of civilians, destruction of houses and farmlands and, severe torture of the Darfuris. The study will also assess the impact, challenges and how lasting peace could be restored to the conflict in Darfur as well as protecting the internal displaced persons (IDPs).

2008