Description
The relationship between the United Nations and African Union has been widely researched based on the UN’s increased efforts of cooperation with regional organisations in the context of peace operations for many years. Moving away from accounts focusing on the political strategic aspects of the AU-UN relationship as well as the organisational interaction between the two, this paper seeks to shed light onto the experiences of peacekeepers within both organisations. More specifically, it compares and contrasts the experiences of African military peacekeepers in MONUSCO and AMISON in conducting their protection of civilians mandate, identifying organisational differences and commonalities. In so doing, the paper will address the following questions: How have evolving peace and security challenges been addressed differently in the context of AU and UN peace operations? How do UN and AU peacekeepers juggle the multiple, sometimes conflicting, roles in protecting civilians? How do the protection recipients perceive their protection measures, what are the differences in the peacekeeping practices of MONUSCO and AMISOM?
