COMMUNICATION IN PEACEKEEPING IN AFRICA

THE WEST AFRICAN EXPERIENCE

Abstract

Conflict is an important factor in international politics. Every day, mass media report new conflicts in various parts of Theworld. Groups clash in power struggle. Interest groups, racism, religion and other destabilizing elements splinter nations. Human rights are flouted and peace is continuously threatened in the universe. Conflicts encircle our world! Contemporary African nations are trapped in a web of conflicts with political instability in theforefront. There is pre-eminence of crises throughout the continent of Africa. Every country seems to have had more than its fair share of conflict situations at a given period of its political history. Prompted by the problems of conflicts in Africa and the failure of political actors to resolve erisis situations and restore lasting
peace in the continent, this article examines the contributions of communication topeacekeeping illAfrica. It is all attempt to understand the relationship between peacekeeping and communication from a West African perspective. The notion that communication plays a crucial role in peacekeeping draws from theories in numerous areas: conflict, agenda setting, preventive diplomacy and internationalism. Its methodological approach pivots on explanation. Although varied examples are drawn from African countries, the major focus is on the performance of the ECOWAS Peace-Monitoring-Group (ECOlvfOG) in
Liberia and Sierra-Leone. The West African experience indicates that communication is important in all dimensions of peace keeping and in all phases of conflict: in preventing, in curing, and ill providing sedative succor-prescription or entertainment. This is apparently an excursion in an area of inquiry with a real promise to significantly advance our understanding of the influence and performance of communication in peacekeeping operations in Africa.