The Use of Force in Peacekeeping Operations in South Sudan and Central African Republic

Peacekeeping operations has evolved in the last decades, especially because of the changes occurred in the patterns of conflict, actors involved in violent processes and global and regional security structure that made both, the conflicts and peace operations more complex. One of the changes in the attempts to manage, resolve or transform conflicts is related to the use of force to protect civilians and/or to accomplish the mandates. From the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leona (UNAMSIL), in 1999, many operations have been authorized to use force to protect civilians under threat of violence. In 2016, eleven peacekeeping operations presented use of force to protect civilians in their mandates. The paper address the use of force by military component in two United Nations peacekeeping operations in Africa - South Sudan and Central African Republic. The work used documents, second hand sources and other methodological tools to present how the force was used in the operations and its results for the protection of civilians and the peace process. The discussion addresses actors, issues and dynamics of the conflicts, and try to establish patterns of actions and the relationship between the use of force and the progress of the peace process.