For half a decade now, Africa has been arguably a continent vastly plagued by an array of varying devastating conflicts. Following its wave of Independence after the World War II, starting with Ghana gaining its independence in 1957, the African continent has had to face several internal and external challenges, to which it has since struggled to respond satisfyingly on its own. Furthermore, the continent has the highest number of Least Developed Countries (LCD) in the world, namely thirty three out of the forty nine currently listed[1]. This means that if we include the island nations and the territory of Western Sahara, more than half of the existing 53 African countries feature an extremely huge gap in their socio-economical growth. Adding to the reality that it has so far a somewhat marginal part in the world trade, we can argue that Africa stands quite on the sidelines of the planet’s playing field, so to speak.
Historically, it has undeniably been the witness to some of the deadliest conflicts in our annals, with arguably 88% of the world’s total conflict death toll occurring on its soil as opposed to the Middle East for example, who can boast a 4% death toll in comparison, and that since the war on Iraq (Hawkins, 2008).
In this context, there was a clear need for The United Nations Organization (more commonly known under the acronym UN) to intervene and provide assistance in order to fulfill its mission of maintaining international peace and security. Indeed, created after the devastating events of World War II and following the imminent dissolution of the League of Nations, UN’s main goals and ideals as defined in its Charter are pertaining to the maintenance and promotion of world peace.
Thus, UN peacekeeping missions occur widely in countries where political tensions are high and in that light, the African strife zones are certainly no exception to its interventions.
In fact, with currently 16 peacekeeping missions throughout the world, the largest