AP News, October 1st, 2007
The record of African peacekeeping missions on the continent:
IVORY COAST: A 1,200-strong West African force deployed in January 2003 to enforce a peace agreement aimed at ending a civil war. The fighting erupted after a failed coup attempt in September 2002 left the country divided between a rebel-held north and a government-held south. In 2004, a 6,000-troop U.N. force took over command of the African troops.
LIBERIA: In 1990, the 16-member Economic Community of West African States sent 8,000 troops, largely from Nigeria. The mission helped end a seven-year civil war and oversaw 1997 presidential elections. But the mission was plagued by scandal, with soldiers seen beating civilians and trading their weapons for cars. I began scaling back in 1998. After fighting sdurged a few years later, about 3,000 African troops redeployed but quickly came under U.N. command as part of a peace agreement that ended the civil war.
RWANDA: Several hundred African peacekeepers were sent to monitor a truce that ended a two-year war in 1993. The troops were replaced by an ineffective U.N. mission in 1994 that was there during the murder of more than a half million Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus.
SIERRA LEONE: A Nigerian-led 12,000-strong force deployed in 1997 and eventually helped to depose the ruling junta and return the elected government to power. U.N. and British forces brought an end to the war, which raged from 1991-2002, and U.N. troops stayed in the country until 2005.
SOMALIA: The African Union pledged 8,000 troops, but so far only Uganda has deployed, with about 1,800 troops there since March. Deployments have been delayed because of the lack of funding and logistical help, and there have already been calls for the United Nations to take over.
SUDAN: The African Union deployed 7,000 troops to the country's war-wracked western Darfur region in 2004. The AU's only active peacekeeping operation in Africa has been plagued by logistic shortages and criticized for failing to protect civilians. The U.N. wants to boost the Darfur force's numbers and take it over in a bid to make it more effective, but Sudan opposes the move.
