REGIONAL AGENCY AND HYBRIDISATION IN AFRICAN PEACEKEEPING: REVISITING THE CASES OF AMIS AND UNAMID IN SUDAN

The aim of this article is twofold. On the one hand, the article revisits peacekeeping in the Sudan as a case relating to a greater desire for African agency in regional security governance captured in the notion of African solutions to African problems. On the other hand, it explores the need and importance of hybridisation in security governance and the quest for strengthened partnerships between peacekeeping actors on the African continent and the international community at large. In view of the above, the first focus area or case study under review is the establishment of the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), a first ever for the African Union (AU) which was launched in accordance with a decision of the AU in 2004 after negotiations among the warring factions under the auspices of the AU. The second focus area concerns the creation of the UN/African Union Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) in 2007 as a hybrid UN–AU operation to bring stability in the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan where the AU was falling short. Specifically, an assessment and appraisal is made of the first three years of UNAMID deployment (2007–2010).