The African Union's Foray Into Peacekeeping: Lessons from The
ARTICLE Tim Murithi The African Union‟s Foray into Peacekeeping: Lessons from the Hybrid Mission in Darfur Journal of Peace, Conflict and Development, Issue 14, July 2009 Available at www.peacestudiesjournal.org.uk The African Union’s Foray into Peacekeeping: Lessons from the Hybrid Mission in Darfur By Tim Murithi Dr. Tim Murithi Head of Programme Peace and Security Council Report Programme Institute for Security Studies Addis Ababa Office, Ethiopia 1 ARTICLE Tim Murithi The African Union‟s Foray into Peacekeeping: Lessons from the Hybrid Mission in Darfur Journal of Peace, Conflict and Development, Issue 14, July 2009 Available at www.peacestudiesjournal.org.uk The African Union’s Foray into Peacekeeping: Lessons from the Hybrid Mission in Darfur Keywords: African Union, peacekeeping, Darfur, hybrid mission Abstract The African Union (AU) was officially inaugurated on July 2002, and a year later it had already deployed its first peace operation in Burundi. The AU subsequently deployed peacekeeping missions in Darfur, in 2004, and in Somalia, in 2007. This article will examine the AU‟s foray into peacekeeping which appears to have been hasty, erratic, and not carefully planned. The article will also assess the extent to which what the AU has been doing can be defined as peacekeeping using the Brahimi Criterion for the deployment of operations. The article will briefly assess the AU‟s operations in Burundi and Somalia before focusing on the joint AU-United Nations (UN) hybrid mission in Darfur. The article examine whether the hybrid mission represents a paradigm shift in peacekeeping, based on the way that it was launched and how it is currently operated.
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