Rethinking United Nations peacekeeping responses to resource wars and armed conflicts in Africa: integrating African indigenous knowledge systems

Rethinking United Nations peacekeeping responses to resource wars and armed conflicts in Africa: integrating African indigenous knowledge systems Evelyn B. Namakula Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research, Vol. ahead-of-print, No. ahead-of-print, pp.- As of November 2021, six out of the 12 United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations are in Sub-Saharan Africa, spread between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Western Sahara, Mali, Central African Republic, Abyei, South Sudan and Darfur. When considered alongside other recent conflicts in Liberia, Angola, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire and Mozambique, many of these conflicts are driven and sustained by resource looting of oil, minerals, timber, gas and fertile land and sand. Although other factors, particularly colonialism, the creation of poorly governed states, ethnic polarization, greed and extremism contribute to violence, the author argues that resource looting is central. Taking the DRC as the case study, the purpose of this paper is to examine why traditional UN peacekeeping, grounded in the international liberal order, has failed to efficiently deescalate wars and armed conflicts that are driven by resource looting and how alternative homegrown peace strategies can be more effective. Deploying peacekeeping, peacebuilding and resource governance and theories, this paper examines the current UN peacekeeping efforts to increase our understanding of how alternative peacekeepi...
Source: Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research - Category: Criminology Authors: Source Type: research