Redefining Africa's Future

Unarmed civilian peacekeeping plays a vital role in conflict zones. Most international peacekeepers engaged in this type of work are deployed in countries other than their own. That means they shed light on what’s happening locally. Their presence allows the world to see what’s happening in places affected by conflict through the eyes of someone who isn’t directly involved. This is what makes unarmed civilian peacekeeping so important. These peacekeepers are independent. They engage impartially with government, civil society, and armed groups. They monitor, listen, and report what they see in an honest and balanced manner. Because of that, all the parties know someone is watching. And that alone can act as a kind of deterrence, like a silent warning. No one wants to be seen as the one violating people’s rights or breaking peace agreements. So, even if it doesn’t completely stop the violence, it makes actors involved in conflict think twice. But for this work to succeed, both sides ...

  When I was a child growing up with my siblings and our mother in Gulu City, Uganda, I had a limited understanding of what leprosy was. If I saw someone with signs and symptoms of leprosy on the road, I didn't want to greet them. I would simply run. I thought that even saying hello might infect me. I recall saying prayers that my family members do not get the deadly disease. That is how deeply I feared it. Back then, in the 1990s, it was common to see people with leprosy disease where I lived. Little did I know that one day, leprosy would not just come near me but inside our house, and this experience never left my memory.   My mother was a teacher at a Primary School in the west of present-day Gulu City. We lived in the teachers' quarters, which was basically a compound of grass-thatched tukuls. My mom had the main tukul, which included a sitting area and a bedroom. My sisters shared the kitchen tukul as their bedroom, and I, being the only big boy, slept in another kitc...