My project is interested in investigating the relationship between peace operation and organized crime. I am more interested in finding out whether AU-led peace operation in Somalia faces challenges from burgeoning organized crime in the Horn of Africa or whether the initiatives or approaches of AU-led peace operations are responsible for the increasing security challenges of organized crime? Why does the AU-led peace operation have mixed results of success since 19th January 2007? The trend appears to be that peace operations in Africa are continuously being faced with tasks beyond traditional peace keeping- to include dealing with challenges of organized crime. These organized crime not only affect the incidence and duration of conflict, but also worsens the security situation as well as hampers, if not, diminishes development in already poverty stricken countries in the Horn of Africa. As such, peace operations in Africa that are alive to the incidence and emergence of organized crime will be able to approach peacebuilding from the understanding that there exists a vicious cycle (insecurity trap) between poverty (underdevelopment), conflict, insecurity (organized crime). Poverty may cause conflict as well as conflict may lead to poverty; and poverty will lead to organized crime or insecurity or organized crime may lead to underdevelopment. In fact, with the deepening of security to focus on the individual and not the state as a referent object, as well as widening of security to capture non-military or non-traditional elements such as health security (drug trafficking), environmental security (trafficking of illegal/poaching wildlife products like rhino horns) thus human security; makes it crucial to understand the relationship between peace operation as a solution tool and organized crime as a challenge to the tool. Given these realization, there is need to examine the current peace operation mechanisms of the AU-led mission in Somalia so as to determine whether these initiatives are effective in tackling