: The paper examines the role of the United Nations as a guarantor of global peace and
security, and the changing landscape of conflict in Africa in the 21st century. Africa as a
continent, since the beginning of the 21st century has been plagued by a complex and diverse
plethora of socio-economic, political and environmental challenges that constitute a clog in the
wheel of economic development and political stability. From the findings, the study reveals that
of the fourteen ongoing UN peacekeeping operations globally, seven are presently ongoing in
Africa. The study further reveals that most of these conflicts are resource-based conflict arising
over economic alienation, unequal distribution of wealth, competition for power, and climate
change arising from resource depletion and population explosion. The study observes that some
of the challenges facing the United Nations Peacekeeping operations in ongoing conflicts in
Africa are multidimensional and calls for swift ranging reforms. Such challenges include the role
of the host state, terrorism and counterterrorism, sexual abuse, and human rights violations by
peacekeeping troops, inability of troops in protecting civilian population from genocide and state
sponsored violence. The study also reveals that the multi-polarity of actors who recently
intervened in African conflicts such as Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Turkey etc. do not have
any strategic interest but rather a destabilizing role should be of serious concern to the stability
of the continent. This is because the prospect of resolving such conflict through diplomacy and
multilateral peacekeeping operations using the United Nations, regional bodies such as the
African Union, ECOWAS, AGAD, SADDC etc. becomes a herculean task. The study therefore,
recommends that the UN rules of engagement in conflict prevention and management be
reformed, so as to ensure that peacekeeping troops who are found guilty of committing heinous
crimes such as sexual assault, rape, indiscipline, murder, should be prosecuted by the host state
where the crime was committed.
