Analysis of the United Nations - African Union Hybrid Peace Support Operations in Darfur

The complexity of most African conflicts has been mainly due to the covert and overt involvement of actors and their interests.1 These interests include the quest for exploiting strategic mineral resources and the setting up of strategic military bases among others. International and regional state and non-state institutions have tried to devise mechanisms that create conditions for peaceful resolution of conflicts in Africa such as operational synergies. The introduction of hybrid peace support operations brought with it some expectations from relevant stakeholders in respect of joint planning, integrated and a clear division of labour between international and regional organisations. However, delicate challenges of political, economic and strategic nature continue to be encountered. These challenges include inter- institutional competition, conflict, mistrust and relative tension, among others. This paper examines and analyses the challenges being facing by the United Nations-African Union (UN-AU) hybrid peace support operations in Darfur. It will be argued that the African Union - United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur, referred to by its acronym, UNAMID, continuous challenges, revolve around political and strategic dynamics such as less cooperation and non-commitment by the five permanent members (P5) of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), less cooperation and non-commitment by host government and lack of funding from relevant stakeholders, thereby affecting attainment of the mission objectives. The authors used data collected through discussions with relevant scholars and interviews with policy practitioners who are conversant with peace support operations. The paper was supported by secondary sources such as books, unclassified policy documents on UN and AU peace support operations.