ABSTRACT
Introduction Towards the end of the last century, Kofi Annan, the United Nations Secretary General, said that the Security Council was now spending 60 per cent of its time on Africa (Shawcross 2000: 23 ff). It was not without good reason that the General Secretary made his statement. In Angola, the UN peacekeeping process had collapsed and an all-out war began in late December 1998, bringing the country towards the brink of another disaster.
