Old and new challenges in multilateral peacekeeping

In 2022, 64 multilateral peace operations were conducted in 38 countries/territories, the highest in a decade. This is according to Sipri (The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute),  which analyses and monitors ongoing missions each year. As in previous years, the United Nations led the largest number of multilateral peace operations, with 20. A further 38 operations were led by various regional organisations and alliances, while six were conducted by ad hoc coalitions of states. Most operations took place in sub-Saharan Africa (24), 18 in Europe, 14 in the Middle East and North Africa, 5 in Asia and 3 in the Americas.

The number of international personnel deployed in multilateral peace operations worldwide increased by 2.79% in 2022, reaching 114,984 as of 31 December. The largest changes in personnel numbers were an increase of 3771 (4.2%) in sub-Saharan Africa and a decrease of 541 (-6.7%) in Europe. In the twelve UN peacekeeping missions, 102 peacekeepers were killed in action in 2022.

In 2022, five new peacekeeping operations were launched in Kazakhstan, Somalia, Guinea-Bissau, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia, with a total of some 26,000 personnel.  All five were deployed by regional organisations. According to Sipri, the responses provided by these organisations focus more on military action than on other aspects of peace operations, such as institution-building and the protection and promotion of human rights.

A ‘flash mission’ lasting only thirteen days was the Collective Security Treaty Organisation peacekeeping operation in Kazakhstan. Established on 6 January 2022, it aimed to protect strategic infrastructure and support law enforcement after demonstrations sparked by rising fuel prices turned into mass protests. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev had called for the deployment of CSTO troops, claiming that international terrorist groups had hijacked the protests. The operation officially ended on 19 January 2022, after the president announced that it had completed its mission.

A minor change, however, concerns the mission in Somalia. On 1 April 2022, the African Union Mission in Somalia (Anisom) was officially transformed into the African Union Transitional Mission in Somalia (Atmis), with a mandate that includes supporting the national government in the fight against al-Shabab, developing national capacities and supporting the peace process. Both the mandate and the authorised implementation of Atmis are essentially the same as for the previous mission.

The Stabilisation Support Mission in Guinea-Bissau (SSMGB) was established by the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) on 3 February following an attempted coup against the President of Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embaló. The peacekeeping operation was deployed in April 2022.

Also on the African continent, the East African Community (EAC) established the EAC Regional Force in the Democratic Republic of Congo on 20 June 2022, in response to the deterioration of the situation in the east of the country, where the Congolese armed forces have been at war with the rebels of the 23 March Movement. The mission lacks a clear mandate, stating only that the joint force should conduct operations to defeat non-state armed groups and support the “maintenance of order” in the DRC, the provision of humanitarian assistance to affected populations, and demobilisation.

Finally, on 29 December, the African Union launched the Monitoring, Verification and Compliance Mission in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. The operation was agreed between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front following the cessation of hostilities agreement. 

* On the cover photo, Military boots on the legs of soldiers in a row © DarSzach/Shutterstock.com

Below are graphs taken from dossier Sipri

In 2022, relations between some peacekeeping operations and host governments reached a new low. The problem was exacerbated by public demonstrations calling for the closure of UN peacekeeping operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mali, which were seen by protesters as ineffective. In the eastern DRC in particular, protests in July 2022 left dozens of people dead, including four peacekeepers from the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in the DRC (Monusco). The deterioration in relations led the Congolese government to expel the mission’s spokesperson and to discuss how to speed up the operation’s withdrawal.

In Mali, on the other hand, the spokesperson for MINUSMA was expelled for publishing what the government called ‘false information’ about the arrival of Ivorian troops supporting the German contingent of the peacekeeping operation, who were arrested and accused of acting as mercenaries. In addition, although the operation’s mandate was renewed for another year, the Malian government opposed the mission’s freedom of movement to investigate alleged human rights abuses, a key part of its mandate.

The activities of the Wagner Group were another point of growing tension between the governments of the Central African Republic and Mali and the UN peacekeeping operations in the two countries. In 2022, Germany and the United Kingdom announced that they would gradually withdraw from the mission due to the activities of the Wagner Group. In addition, in April 2022, the European Union Training Mission in Mali suspended the training of Mali’s armed forces and national guard, citing concerns about “interference” and alleged killings of civilians by the Wagner group.

Four multilateral peace operations ended in 2022: in Kazakhstan, Somalia (see insight 1), Ukraine and the Philippines. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (SMM) officially ended on 31 March 2022, after Russia refused to extend the operation’s mandate for another year. The mission can be seen as another casualty of the war, as the operation, which had been active since 2014, was tasked with monitoring and reporting on the security situation in Ukraine and facilitating dialogue between the conflicting parties in the east of the country. At the time of its closure, the SMM was the largest unarmed civilian multilateral peacekeeping operation with 809 international members.

Another mission ended on 30 June 2022 in the Philippines. The International Monitoring Team (IMT) closed its doors after nearly two decades of monitoring activities on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. Launched in 2004, the operation aimed to monitor the implementation of the 2003 ceasefire agreement between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), one of the largest rebel groups in the region. In March 2022, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared that the IMT’s mandate would not be renewed, even though the MILF is still in the process of gradually disarming.

The war in Ukraine has also had a major impact on peace operations, according to the Sipri report. Indeed, the dynamics within the UN Security Council were not less complicated, even though all UN peacekeeping mandates were renewed. China and Russia did not use their veto power, but abstained from voting on several mandate renewals, including the Minusca mission in the Central African Republic and the Minusma mission in Mali.

In addition, there is a growing perception among some populations that peacekeeping operations have not adequately addressed protracted conflict-related crises (see Insight 2). The combination of these factors, according to the Sipri report, could lead to peace operations that give lower priority to human rights, good governance and democratisation.