Delivering Humanitarian Assistance in African Armed Conflicts: A Critical Commentary

Abstract

Some 40 experts in humanitarian assistance to civilian victims of armed conflict came together in Harare in March 1989 under the auspices of the International Peace Academy and the University of Zimbabwe. The sponsors were concerned to provide some concrete analytical insights into the many grave conflicts in Africa that have inflicted great suffering — denial of human rights, dislocation, hunger, death. Internal security situations of many African countries increasingly prevent or severely inhibit the provision of humanitarian succour. The central question was whether and under which sets of circumstances outside military forces — in particular United Nations peacekeepers — could be part of more comprehensive international responses to facilitate emergency aid in countries torn by violence including civil war.