September has been a big month for international peacekeeping, for better and for worse…

President Barack Obama’s engagement and encouraging statements at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York this week spoke of the promise of a renewed international push to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of UN peacekeeping as a whole. 

On the other hand, the killing of  African Union peacekeepers in Somalia, reminded us of the massive challenges and terrible sacrifices that peacekeepers are facing in their efforts to establish peace in tough places all around the world.  

The African Union mission in Somalia, AMISOM, forces were deployed to support Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG), an internationally backed governing body that is attempting to bring order and governance back to Somalia after almost three decades of confusion.  

Today the presence of AMISOM soldiers is all that is preventing militant groups from ejecting the government from the Somali capital, Mogadishu.  In spite of the critical nature of their task, and the broad international interest in keeping the TFG in place, AMISOM forces have been chronically starved for troops and resources. Until very recently the AU struggled just to secure enough predictable funding to be able to keep the skeleton mission in the field.

Beyond the operational difficulties, the resolve and morale of this force has been tested again and again.  Early in 2009 11 Burundian soldiers were killed in a suicide bomb blast near their base, and just last week 16 AMISOM soldiers, including the Deputy Force Commander, were killed  on the base in Mogadishu, when two stolen UN trucks filled with explosives were detonated.  It is a credit to each and every AMISOM soldier, and to their political leaders in Uganda, Burundi and at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, that the mission has not withdrawn, as we have seen other countries pull their troops from peacekeeping missions in the past.  

AMISOM is called a peacekeeping force, but the truth is there was never any peace to keep.  Far from “keeping the peace” AMISOM soldiers fight every day to keep Somalia’s government (and themselves) alive.

These challenges are illustrative of many of the gaps and challenges that exist in the international peacekeeping system: mandates that are unclear, overly complex, or insufficient to address the real issues on the ground; difficult, sometimes brutal, living and operating conditions; and insufficient staff and resources to do the work that we ask peacekeepers to do. 

In New York this week President Obama outlined the U.S. Commitment to address these issues, promising to;

-    Ensure that mandates for peacekeeping operations are credible and achievable so that they are equipped to succeed, in clearly measurable ways;

-    Expand the pool, capacity, and effectiveness of troop and police contributors; and

-    Help the UN mobilize critical enabling assets, such as field hospitals, engineers, transport and aviation units and is willing to consider contributing more U.S. military officers, civilian police and civilian personnel to UN missions

Refugees International applauds this new commitment, and if President Obama can galvanize the international community to make these necessary changes then our collective responsibility to protect people from violence and displacement will be incalculably advanced.  It will also show the world that the U.S. is willing to stay engaged in politically un-sexy places a long way from home.

We would all do well to take to heart last week’s message from the Ugandan military spokesman in response to the death of the AMISOM soldiers, “We do not run away when the situation worsens.”