The United Nations in Africa (1)

Abstract

Four African countries — Burundi and Rwanda, whose fortunes are closely linked, and Somalia and Liberia — have suffered the effects of brutal civil wars and massacres during the 1990s and through both involvement and default the United Nations has been shown up as less than effective in any of them. In Burundi, by mid-1996, there was ample and growing evidence that a genocidal explosion on a par with that which had taken place in Rwanda during 1994 was about to occur; here was a classic example of a country where a powerful case could be made for intervention in order to prevent a disaster that was clearly about to unfold. In Rwanda appalling genocide occurred during 1994 while the United Nations and the major powers remained onlookers and found it impossible to make any decisions about intervention. In Somalia US-led intervention exacerbated rather than diminished the existing problems so that the United Nations was forced to withdraw entirely. In Liberia, perhaps wisely, the United Nations kept to the sidelines and left peacekeeping operations to regional African states led by Nigeria and ECOWAS.