The international community cant be relied upon  It is clear that Africa cannot rely on the international community to solve its conflicts. In order to be more independent, what the African Union needs is a standing army, which can intervene whenever there is a crisis.  First of all, when looking at statistics, having dipped in the 1990s the number of conflicts is growing once more, the most recent events of Mali and the Algeria serving as a perfect example(1). “following a year (2010) that signalled hope for a more peaceful development, the number of conflicts increased by nearly 20 percent “(4). This has served to demonstrate Africa’s need for a force to engage in peace keeping and peace making.  Despite the growing need for peacekeeping forces, there is reason to believe that the help coming from the international community will be insufficient. The dysfunctional structure of the UNSC, the body which approves all major international interventions. Russia and China, two countries which have a non interventionist approach on foreign policy, have veto power in this body; which means a lot of possible interventions get vetoed. The examples of Syria and Sudan prove the inability of the international community to intervene in crisis situations(2) (3).  (1) “Jihad in the Sahara”, The Economist, Jan 17th 2013,   (2) ‘Genocide in Darfur’, United Human Rights Council, 2013,   (3) Reuters, “Syria Death Toll Tops 115,000, Group Says”, Huffington Post , 1 October 2013,   (4) ‘The number of armed conflicts increased strongly in 2011’, Uppsala Universitet, 13 July 2013,  =