09 countries delay rotating troop & police in UN Peacekeeping Mission

 09 COUNTRIES DELAY ROTATING TROOP & POLICE IN UN PEACEKEEPING MISSION

The United Nations has announced that nine countries, including Cambodia, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Nepal, South Korea and Thailand, are delaying the rotation of troops and police for their peacekeeping missions for three months due to the new coronavirus.

 

This means that soldiers and police officers who were supposed to switch out will now stay in their positions longer. The United Nations Police Division says this delay will help maintain the strength of the missions and allow them to continue carrying out their tasks. As a result of this decision, some planned deployments or rotations to peacekeeping operations in Congo, Lebanon, South Sudan, and its border with Sudan will be suspended or postponed.

 

As of the end of January, there were over 95,000 personnel serving in 13 peacekeeping operations worldwide, including soldiers, police officers and civilians. Despite the global pandemic, none of these missions have reported any cases of COVID-19.

 

The United Nations is implementing various measures to ensure the safety, security and health of all its personnel, while also ensuring the continuity of operations. These measures include the implementation of health and sanitation policies and procedures for all personnel involved in the peacekeeping missions.

255 Pakistani troops depart for peacekeeping

255 PAKISTANI TROOPS DEPART FOR PEACEKEEPING

LAHORE - A batch of 255 Pakistan Army troops departed for Congo to perform peace-keeping duties under the aegis of United Nations Mission.

Brigadier Bilal Javaid bade them farewell at the Allama Iqbal International Airport on Sunday.

The departing troops will replace the already deployed Pakistan Army Contingent in the war-ravaged country as part of relieve and rotation schedule.

Speaking to troops, Brigadier Bilal Javaid said that Pakistan Army had added glorious chapters in the history of peace-keeping by rendering dedicated services for the restoration of peace all over the globe.

He urged the troops that they were embarking on a noble assignment as ambassadors of their country.

The Pakistani peace-keepers are serving in war ravaged Congo since the last eight years. The Pakistani contingent has earned acclaim for successfully restoring secure and stable environments in the strife torn country.

Extra UN troops for South Sudan

EXTRA UNITED NATIONS TROOPS FOR SOUTH SUDAN

The United Nations says it's working "as quickly as possible" to deploy 5,500 extra UN peacekeepers to protect civilians in South Sudan where fighting is focused on the oil hub of Bentiu and the Nile river town of Bor.

Forces of South Sudan's President Salva Kiir sought to regain the oil hub of Bentiu from rebels on Friday. At the UN, peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said extra troops were being deployed to protect Sudanese civilians.

Briefing the UN Security Council, Ladsous said the violent breakup of South Sudan's administration in mid-December had left probably a quarter of a million South Sudanese displaced, including 60,000 sheltering at UN compounds and tens of thousands who had sought refuge in Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia.

Ladsous said the deadline for the extra deployments was "between four and eight weeks." Troops and police would be drawn from other UN and African Union missions, across Africa, he added, and would go "into a pro-active footing."

South Sudan's fighting, often along ethnic lines, has pitted Kiir's SPLA forces against rebels loyal to former vice president Riek Machar.

8,000 sheltering at Bentiu

The UN said it was ready to fend off any attacks on its own compound at Bentiu where 8,000 people are sheltering. UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq described the situation as "unclear and fluid."  The news agency AFP said fighting was also raging around the town of Bor, the only other major town in rebel hands.

Hundreds of people fled through crocodile-infested swamps of the White Nile river and told how gunmen had shot civilians with machine guns as they fled.

Peace talks in deadlock

With peace talks in neighboring Ethiopia in deadlock, US Assistant Secretary for Africa Linda Thomas-Greenfield said South Sudan – formed only 3 years ago – was "in danger of shattering."

"Each day the conflict continues, the risk of all-out civil war grows as ethnic tensions rise," she told US lawmakers in Washington. The talks have faced delays after Kiir refused a rebel demand to release 11 high-level political detainees.

Death toll 'substantially' higher

At the UN, Ladsous said he estimated that the death toll was "very substantially in excess" of the 1,000 deaths the UN cited just after the conflict erupted on December 15. The violence began as a clash between rival army units in what President Kiir said was an attempted coup by Machar.

Machar denied that accusation, accusing Kiir of trying to root out political opponents. The conflict has trimmed South Sudan's oil production by around a fifth, depriving the impoverished nation of its main source of foreign currency.