Who will pay for the peacekeeping missions in Africa?
African Union soldiers march through the town of Golweyn in Somalia's Lower Shabelle region on August 30, 2014, after having liberated it from Al Shabaab fighters. The problem for African peacekeeping is not so much where to find the boots to put on the ground, but how to pay for them. PHOTO | AFP
The problem for African peacekeeping is not so much where to find the boots to put on the ground, but how to pay for them — not to mention the helicopters, intelligence-gathering and technology crucial to conducting modern military operations and dealing with the new security threats on the horizon.
Since 2002, none of the five African Union peace operations have been financed through the AU’s Peace Fund, except for an allocation of $50 million for the African-led International Support Mission to Mali in 2013.
