Protection and Military Peacekeeping: A comparison of protection experiences in the DRC and Somalia

Focussing on protection, the paper will explore peacekeeping experiences in the DRC and Somalia. Building on interviews with African military peacekeepers in both countries, it focusses on the everyday and mundane practices of protection providers. These experiences are complemented and contrasted by experiences of civilians who are supposed to be on the receiver side of protection, and by humanitarians who are also fulfilling protection mandates but are also receivers of protection, for example when peacekeepers accompany their convoys. The paper will address the following questions: What do the three actor groups understand as protection, and how is protection experienced? What are the differences between the three actor groups and in the two countries? What can we learn from these experiences for the protection mandates of peacekeeping?