Responsibility to Protect: Humanitarian Intervention in Africa: Case study - Darfur

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Chapter 2.1.1 Inadequate political will:
Civilians are the primary casualties of war across the world (Associated Press, 2012). Most of the armed conflicts taking place are within sovereign territories and they have continued unabated for many years despite attempts of international community to find solutions. However, Clough (n.d.) argues that despite the international community declaring on several occasions that it has the responsibility to protect innocent civilians in instances of armed conflict; it has lacked the political will to put a stop to the violence until it is too late when many lives have been lost. Nonetheless, Bogland, Egnell and Lagerstrom (2008) note that political will have a tendency of disintegrating amidst intervention, particularly when the forces of intervention are confronted with casualties. For example, in 1992 when the UN peacekeeping forces were deployed in Bosnia they were denied authority to intervene and protect the civilians until 1995 when more than 100,000 Bosnians had lost their lives. Similarly, Brickhill (2007) adds that in case of Somalia, the US and the UN failed to deploy military intervention till late 1992 when close to 30,000 civilians had lost their lives due to famine resulting from the armed conflict. Later, all the forces that had been deployed were later withdrawn in October 1993 after 18 US soldiers were killed. Supportively, Curtis (2001) notes that in 1994 when the Rwandan Genocide commenced, the UN quickly voted to withdraw significant portions of its peacekeeping forces as soon as 10 of them were killed on the first day. However, Fasher (2012) argues that in 2000, British peacekeeping forces successfully intervened in Sierra Leone to halt a civil war. Though this was after less willing UN and regional interventions had failed to curb the killing of tens of thousands, and commission of gruesome atrocities throughout the previous 9 years. The same case was replicated in Liberia, when regional and

Mehari Fisseha is a researcher and expert in Migration, Refugee protection and Humanitarian Intervention. With a background in international human rights law and international relations, he holds a master's degree in Government and Public Policy from the University College Cork, MA degree in International Development Practice from Mary Immaculate College, MA in Peacebuilding from Coventry University, MA in Criminal Justice, Governance and Police Science from Ruhr Bochum University, MSc in Sociology of Law from Lund University, MA in Governance and Political Transformation from the University of Free State and a Law (LLB) Degree from University of Limerick. His research focuses on rights protection of refugees, social justice, international developments, diplomacy, peace and conflict.