UNITED NATIONS PEACE KEEPING
MISSIONS!
• UN Peacekeepers
are sent into
countries at end of
civil war or conflict.
• Why are there so
many Civil Wars in
Africa?
• Many causes of
these civil wars!
MANY REASONS FOR CIVIL WARS IN
AFRICA!
Root Causes!
• Politically corrupt
African leaders
• Leads or warlords
commit Human Rights
abuses
• Lack of respect for
laws, or no real laws in
country.
Over Looked Causes!
• Colonial Legacyexploitation of
resources & divide and
rule strategy.
• U.S. and Soviet Union
intervention during the
Cold War!
SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA= EUROPEAN COLONIALISM
1880-1914
EUROPEANS SCRAMBLED TO TAKE OVER ALL PARTS OF
AFRICA.
EUROPEANS WANTED NATURAL RESOURCES!
DIAMONDS, OIL, MINERALS, RUBBER– RICH RESOURCES
EUROPEAN USED THIS STRATEGY THROUGHOUT AFRICA
• Rwanda
DIVIDE & RULE
BELGIANS IN RWANDA
DI VI SION OF ETHNI CI TI ES LA TER LEA DS TO CI VI L WA R I N RWA NDA
AFTER INDEPENDENCE, CIVIL WAR FOR DECADES BETWEEN
HUTUS & TUTSIS LED TO GENOCIDE OF TUTSIS
BELGIANS HAD PUT TUTSIS IN POWER, AGAINST THE HUTUS
DIVIDE AND RULE IN THE SUDAN- LED TO CIVIL WAR
BETWEEN NORTH AND SOUTH SUDAN
BRITISH DEVELOPED AND FAVORED THE ARAB NORTH; IGNORING THE
SOUTHERN PART OF THE COUNTRY
UGANDA, NORTH- ACHOLI & LANGO, SOUTH- BANTU GROUPS
BRITISH CREATED TENSIONS BETWEEN DIFFERENT
GROUPSDIVIDE AND RULE
BELGIAN’S DID NOT USE DIVIDE & RULE
BUT THEY DID
EXPLOIT RESOURCES OF CONGO
EUROPEANS CREATE BORDERS FOR NEWLY INDEPENDENT
COUNTRIES!
NO CONCERN FOR THE DIFFERENT ETHNIC OR CULTURAL GROUPS THAT
WERE WITHIN THE BORDERS.
ANOTHER CAUSE OF CIVIL WARS
U.S. and Soviets interventions in
African to stop Communism!
U.S. supported corrupt
leaders to stop communism!
DEMOCRATIC LEADER & PRES.
LUMUMBA VIEWED AS COMMUNIST!
Patrice Lumumba- 1st
Elected leader of Congo
CIA & rebels in Congo
deposed Lumumba.
AFTER LUMUMBA, U.S. HELPS JOSEPH MOBUTU BECOMES
LEADER & HE EXPLOITS THE CONGO RESOURCES AS WELL
MOBUTU IS ANTI - COMMUNIST, BUT VERY CORRUPT!
COLD WAR- MOBUTU “ANTI-COMMUNIST”
PRESIDENT REAGAN & MOBUTU
IN UGANDA THE U.S. SUPPORTED THIS CORRUPT, ANTICOMMUNIST LEADER- IDI AMIN 1971-1979
SUPPORTED BY WESTERN GOVERNMENTS & SUPPLIED WITH WEAPONS!
WEAPONS TO CORRUPT LEADERS (ANTI
COMMUNIST); FUELED CIVIL WARS
• Throughout the
Cold War (19501989), the U.S.
delivered over $1.5
Billion worth of
weaponry to Africa.
• Top U.S. arms
clients- Liberia,
Somalia, the Sudan,
and the Congo
HUGE DEPOSITS OF MINERALS, OIL, DIAMONDS IN CONGO
AFRICAN LEADERS EXPLOIT MINERALS
UN PEACEKEEPING, COMPLEX & DIFFICULT
WITHOUT THE UN MANY MORE DEATHS IN WORLD FROM WARS!
UN PEACE KEEPING IS VERY COMPLEX
AND DIFFICULT!
• When a war ends, 4 out of 10 of those conflicts would reemerge in war if the U.N. wasn’t there!
• To go into places that has no real government and try to
bring stability and rebuild a country is very difficult!
• In the last 60 years, there have been 63 peacekeeping
missions & 45 of them have been closed (some
successful & some unsuccessful)
• Over 115,000 U.N. Peacekeepers, military, civilians,
police, engineers…etc.
CASE STUDIES IN CLASS
• The Congo (Zaire)
• Focus; effects of colonialism, U.S. Foreign policy during the Cold War &
power of U.S. multinational companies.
• Congo does not experience a civil war, but a brutal invasion from it’s
neighboring countries that leads to killing of over 6 million people.
• No international response to this brutal African World War!
• Rwanda
• Focus; effects of colonialism led to civil war- U.N. Peacekeepers are in
country at end of war…. But genocide begins as war is ending..
• No U.N. intervention to stop the genocide – abuse of “veto” power in the
security council of the United Nations.
• Sudan
• Focus; effects of colonialism leads to a civil war and genocide in Darfur.
• Abuse of “veto” power in the security council of the United Nations to stop
the human rights abuse during civil war and genocide in Darfur..