Unamid and Monusco - the Two Most Expensive UN Peacekeeping Operations

By Roberto Miguel Rodriguez

An analysis of the two most expensive UN peacekeeping operations, both in Africa, UNAMID and MONUSCO, the first in Sudan and the second in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Nov 14, 2015
• ISBN: 9781329690790

Book preview

Unamid and Monusco - the Two Most Expensive UN Peacekeeping Operations

UNAMID and MONUSCO, the Two Most Expensive UN Peacekeeping Operations:  How Close Are They to Achieve Their Objectives?

by

Roberto Miguel Rodriguez

October 2015

Table of Contents

ABSTRACT

CHAPTER I – INTRODUCTION

Findings

UNAMID

MONUSCO

Methodology

CHAPTER II – BACKGROUND INFORMATION - CONFLICT AND SECURITY IN AFRICA

CHAPTER III – LITERATURE REVIEW AND METHODOLOGY

Literature Review

Methodology

CHAPTER IV – UNAMID

UNAMID Mandate

UNAMID IN 2015

CHAPTER V - MONUSCO

MONUSCO Mandate

MONUSCO IN 2015

CHAPTER VI – OPERATIONS DISCUSSION

UNAMID Discussion

MONUSCO  Discussion

CHAPTER VII  – CONCLUDING COMMENTS

Bibliography

Archive Collections

Secondary Sources

ADDENDUM A

Estimated UNAMID Mandate Completion

ADDENDUM B

Estimated MONUSCO Mandate Completion

ABSTRACT

UNAMID and MONUSCO (previously MONUC) have been the two most expensive peacekeeping operations in all UN history. Started in 2007 and 1999 respectively, the mandate of both operations have been repeatedly extended and expanded, but they are still far from achieving all of their objectives. Although the environment in each operation is extremely complex, these operations have manifested weaknesses in the implementation of their respective mandates, including lack of coordination, equipment and training, discipline, priorities and support by the host governments. This paper analyzes in some detail the two most complex UN peacekeeping operations ever launched and investigates the reasons why most of the two operations’ mandates have remained unachievable and elusive.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I want to thank my dissertation supervisor, Professor Paul Trickett, for his valuable guidance and comments in writing this dissertation, as well as the able teams of instructors and facilitators which guided me through this program. Obviously, any weakness or error that still remains in this work is completely my responsibility.

UNAMID and MONUSCO, the Two Most Expensive UN Peacekeeping Operations:  How Close are they to achieve their Objectives?

CHAPTER I – INTRODUCTION

Since 2007, UNAMID in Darfur and since 2010, MONUSCO in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have struggled to manage a complex political and military situation with mixed results. At this time, both operations are still a long way from achieving their objectives. This dissertation will discuss and analyze these two peacekeeping operations and point out the difficulties that they are encountering in fulfilling their respective mandates. This study will identify the obstacles that have made these operations so lengthy, complex and expensive; and forecast how long these peacekeeping operations may have to stay in the ground if they are to achieve their mandate.

Most of the efforts made by the United Nations (UN) peacekeepers are concentrated in the African continent. Today, the UN manages a total of 18 active peacekeeping operations worldwide, with 10 of these in Africa.[1] Among the African peacekeeping operations, two of them, UNAMID, the UN – African Union (AU) Mission in Darfur and MONUSCO, the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), consume 43% of the US $ 7 billion annual peacekeeping budget.[2] These two operations have complex mandates and confront several difficulties to implement such mandates and achieve their objectives. The unstable environment in South Sudan and Congo for the last many years has shown the great limitations of the UN peacekeeping force to keep the peace. UN peacekeepers have learned to adapt to multiple and complicated situations, and have gone through five generations of peacekeeping operations but still, the current operations face a number of problems and difficulties which have impeded the successful accomplishment of their goals.

The end of World War II precipitated a number of wars throughout the African continent, some of them liberation movements fighting against the countries’ colonial powers and others were civil wars. Since 1960, more than 40 wars have resulted in more than 10 million deaths plus another 10 million refugees.[3] In more recent times, the catastrophic civil wars in Somalia in 1993 and in Rwanda in 1994, and the inefficient and late response by the UN, contributed to disengage the powerful Western nations from African affairs, leaving the continent to take care of its own problems without sufficient human or material resources.[4] This temporary neglect by the international community forced a group of regional organizations headed by the Organization of African Unity (OAU), now the African Union (AU), to play a more decisive role in the deployment and management of peacekeeping operations. A number of African organizations, mostly organisms that had been initially created with the objective of developing the African economy, such as ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States; the ECCAS, the Economic Community of Central African States; SADC, the Southern African Development Community, IGAD, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development and AMU, the Arab Maghreb Union, had to assume some security responsibilities.[5] Some of these organizations, such as ECCAS, ECOWAS, IGAD and SADC, pressured by the unstable conditions developing