Peacekeeping Operations in West Africa

West Africa has one of the most efficient regional organizations on the continent. The Economic Community of Western African States or ECOWAS includes 16 countries that speak English, French and Portuguese. This language diversity seems to be a handicap for the unity of this area of Africa. However, these language differences related to the colonial history, West Africa did organize its peacekeeping operations to guarantee the security of the people of Liberia and later on, restore the regime of the democratically elected president, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, of Sierra-Leone on 10 March 1998. The aim of this study is to show how West Africa solved the security problem despite some scarcities regarding logistics and financial resources. Some political problems did evolve because of cultural differences between its members and also the existing alliances between some of them and the warring factions. The major lesson learned is that these operations can be successfully conducted provided the countries have the will to do it and then put together their assets and focus on the high interest of this region rather than on their traditional rivalries. The future of these operations seems to be bright and they will be more professionally conducted.

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