Efforts of the AU and UN Peacekeeping Missions in the Darfur Region of Sudan

Efforts of the AU and UN Peacekeeping Missions in the Darfur Region of Sudan
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Efforts of the AU and UN Peacekeeping Missions in the Darfur Region of Sudan
Introduction
A conflict is a typically protracted dispute between or among people or groups of people. World over, many nations have experienced wars, with significant others being at the brink of it, calling for ways to manage the antagonism. According to Soliku and Schraml (2018), the process of managing a conflict involves all attempts towards increasing its positive side while reducing, as much as possible, the fatalistic aspects and features. Conflict management scholars point out that the main aim of this process is to enhance lesson learning through dispute outcomes. It is important to note that conflicts arise in all settings, including organizations and the most forgotten one, families. Civil wars have trended recently, becoming one of the most prevalent forms of conflict. Therefore, some of the most recent ones include the ongoing civil war in Syria, intervention into Mali by France in 2013, and intervention in Kosovo in 1999 by NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization), and Sudan's war in Darfur.
Characteristically, civil wars exist in many states for reasons that range from economic to political dissatisfaction among people, prompting certain organized groups to revolt (Dew, 2017). For example, the economic causes may include grievances from members of the society fighting against problems such as income inequality or dissatisfaction in the sharing of natural resources such as land. Politically, on the other hand, a civil war is deemed to happen when a government of state fails to embrace ethnic diversity among its citizens and disregarding autonomy rights to all people equally. People who have undergone these kinds of problems tend to fight to broaden their political rights and freedoms through repressions. International organizations and unions have always played (or at least attempted to play) a significant role in the processes of peace restoration in the cases of internal conflicts in countries globally. Such organizations include the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU). For instance, there were conflict management efforts by the UN and the AU to broker peace in Sudan’s Darfur from 2004 to 2009, which had had their shares of successes and failures.
Background
The Conflict
The Darfur War also informally referred to as the Land Cruiser War. The major armed war began in the Darfur region, located in the west of Sudan, around February 2003, following an accusation of the Sudanese Government by two rebel groups. JEM (Justice and Equality Movement) and SLM (Sudan Liberation Movement) claimed that the Government maltreated the population that mainly consisted of the non-Arabs living in the region. The Government would later retaliate by organizing attacks against he said ethnic groups living in Darfur, in operations that seemed geared towards ethnic cleansing. These altercations led to the massive deaths of civilians in hundreds of thousands (Ashley, 2017). In this regard, a better understanding of the circumstances leading to the war is attainable through an insightful look at the region's history and subsequent policies and events that triggered antagonism.
Studies on the history of Darfur show that the region was historically an Islamic sultanate, with the Fur ethnic group emerging as the dominant rulers before 1916. These developments would later lead to the declaration of Islam as the state religion. Subsequently, the sultanate of Darfur enjoyed self-governance, surviving various conflicts, including the conquest of Anglo-Egyptian in 1898, shortly towards subjugation by the British almost two decades later (Kostelyanets, 2019). The long history of Darfur’s independence and the constant rejection of other ethnicities and religions that wanted to exercise control comes in handy in comprehending the conflict that would later involve the collaborative intervention of the United Nations and the African Union. Sedentary and nomad groups formed are the two significant subdivisions that differentiated the 80 tribes and ethnic demographic for who Darfur provided homage. The three tribes from where the rebels were drawn included Zaghawa, Darfur, and Massalit. Altogether, they chose Darfur as their base, prompting most civilians to flee from this area for their safety. The scarcity of resources was one of the significant factors that led to the conflict, despite the distinct features seen between the Arabs and their counterparts.
As early as 1939, there existed ethnic and tribal conflicts, especially those caused by the scramble for resources, including water and land. They could also arise as a result of cattle raiding and livestock trespassing, where people attempted to graze on their neighbors' farmlands. At the time, studies show that Darfur had experiencing unprecedented droughts, which led to low harvest of agricultural produce. Also, there were incidences of infestation by pests as the overall inadequacy of agricultural inputs. The elderly, women, and children were forced to fight for their lives when the local labour force took their leave to look for employment elsewhere. Simultaneously, these reasons and factors contributed to the communities’ inability to cope. As the Muslims continued to have the feeling of entitlement, the minorities felt that they equally belonged.
The AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS) Efforts
Before the ceasefire by the African Union, there had been attempts by the Government of Chad. Under the presidency of Idriss Déby, the foreign-led negotiation was majorly informed by the increasing number of refugees entering Chad due to the wars that were led by liberation armies. However, it is noted that the peace deal never lasted, mainly because it was signed between the Government of Sudan and one of the factions, the Sudan Liberation Movement. Consequently, there were the EU (European Union) and the AU interventions, who sent monitors to do an overall assessment of the crisis in Darfur. An AU-lead negotiation in 2004 then led to the facilitation of the HCFA (Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement), which was duly signed by all the three parties (Marion, 2019). This went down in history as one of the remarkable accords by the warring sides.
The first accord saw the imposition of restrictions of flights on the airspace above Darfur, which was then controlled by rebels. The move was intended to stop the bombing of the region's villages by the Sudanese military. The second treaty had the input of Nigeria in 2004, and related to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. This was between the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and was intended to support and allow the promotion of human rights by the African Union Mission in Sudan. The latter also tied to the United Nations Security Council's formation of UNMIS (United Nations Mission In Sudan) under the permission of the Resolution 1590 in 2005. The UN took this step with the belief that Darfur's circumstances posed a threat to international peace and security.
Later, there was a significant boost in 2005 following the 7,000 additional troops to the existing 3,000. Particular African countries, including South Africa, Gambia, Kenya, Senegal, and Nigeria, also sent troop battalions, with 105 armored vehicles coming from Canada to further enhance the efforts to normalize the situation in Darfur by AMIS. One of the notable occurrences was the conspicuous refusal by SLM to be present at the negotiation talks organized by AMIS in Abuja, Nigeria. The mission faced a significant setback when an Arab militia attacked the Aro Sharow refugee camp with the Government's support. The efforts by AU continued to face a myriad of challenges that significantly impeded humanitarian assistance that was the primary goal of the mission. For example, some of its personnel were taken hostage but later liberated through the support of JEM Forces. Besides, mistrust arose from time to time, with at least one party always accusing the delegation of seeming to take sides in the talk. Some sections associated these (and other) drawbacks as happening due to internal disagreements between parties to the negotiation.
The conflict management process was close to collapsing following the killing of some 3 AU personnel. The SLA was linked with the attack. The three parties outwardly showed their dedication to negotiate, nonetheless. As a quick reply, the Government was able to implement the deployment of the over 100 armored personnel carriers, which had been sent by Canada. Time flew without notable achievements made, forcing the AU Peace and Security Council to extend the mission term for six additional months, a decision the body made two more times until June 2007. Time was critical, and AU was able to note that its delegation's efforts were due to collapse following the continued killing of its personnel. It cited lack of funds as a significant impediment as most soldiers drawn from different countries were unpaid, forcing their respective countries to threaten to withdraw them. Certainly, this was a significant factor because every slightest success depended on the safety of AMIS personnel. The UN Security Council (in July 2007) pass the Resolution 1769, which marked the inception of UNAMID, coined to mean The African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur. This body was mandated to continue operations and activities of AMIS by the last date of the year 2007.
The UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) Efforts
The UNMIS was established following Resolution 1590 by the UN Security Council in 2005. Its main tasks included to: assist in the voluntary return of all internally displaced persons and refugees; support the Comprehensive Peace Agreement’s implementation; and to enhance the protection of the Sudanese people’s human rights, among others. According to the same approval, it would comprise police, civilian, and military. The involvement of UNMIS came after worries that the wars in Darfur would jeopardize the presence of peace in Southern Sudan, which had ongoing talks on the self-determination. Thus, it was a matter of its expansion rather than its inception. During these periods, tensions fluctuated, prompting the Resolution 1706 of the UN Security Council to propose the deployment of its 20,000 peacekeeping force, a move whose implementation failed due to the Sudanese Government's opposition (Khadka, 2017). Therefore, the Council was specific on the areas it would concentrate on, including participating in the implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement. There was a request for joint consultation between the AU and the UN Security Council for incorporation and transition of AMIS into the operation of the United Nations in...