FACTBOX-Key Facts on Peacekeeping in Africa
June 25 (Reuters) - Nigeria has a battalion of around 800 soldiers ready to deploy to Somalia as part of an African Union peacekeeping force and could send more if needed, a military spokesman said on Wednesday.
Here are some details on international peacekeeping in Africa.
PENDING MISSIONS:
* SOMALIA:
-- The U.N. Security Council last month adopted a resolution that said it would consider sending U.N. troops to replace AU peacekeepers, known as AMISOM, but only if the political and security situation improved. -- The AU and East African body IGAD were willing to send more than 8,000 peacekeepers into Somalia, however only 1,600 Ugandan and 600 Burundian troops have actually arrived.
-- Nigerian officials said one battalion of 750-850 men would travel to Mogadishu as soon as the Nigerian government gave its final approval.
* SUDAN, DARFUR:
-- In 2007 the U.N. Security Council finally authorised 26,000 troops for the new operation known as UNAMID.
-- However there are still only around 9,000 peacekeepers on the ground in Darfur.
CURRENT MISSIONS:
* CHAD: EUFor (From 2008)
-- The European Union's EUFor has just over 2,200 troops in eastern Chad and northern Central African Republic, and is due to reach full strength of 3,700 by the end of June.
-- But that is a tiny force to protect nearly half a million Sudanese and Chadians forced from their homes by fighting in all three countries, mostly from Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region.
-- EUFor is designed to complement a hybrid AU-UN force deploying in Darfur to help end several years of civil war fuelled by ethnic divisions. * DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: (MONUC) (From 1999)
-- The U.N. maintains the largest peacekeeping force in the world, with 18,446 uniformed personnel including 16,700 troops, deployed in Congo to help a national army being put together from former warring rebel and militia groups.
-- Around 125 peacekeepers have been killed since 1999.
* ETHIOPIA AND ERITREA: (UNMEE) (From 2000)
-- U.N. Security Council members said in April they would reconsider the future of a peacekeeping force on the Eritrean border with Ethiopia because of obstruction of the force's work by Eritrea.
-- The United Nations has almost completely withdrawn some 1,700 troops and military observers from a buffer zone along the border between the two Horn of Africa rivals after Eritrea cut its fuel supplies. * IVORY COAST: (UNOCI) (From 1999)
-- Around 11,000 U.N. and French peacekeepers (9,168 are from U.N.) monitor the buffer zone stretching across the middle of the world's top cocoa growing nation after a 2002-2003 civil war split it into a government-run south and rebel-held north.
-- Despite a string of U.N.-backed peace deals, Ivory Coast made little progress toward holding elections. However President Laurent Gbagbo announced in April 2008 that a presidential poll would be held on Nov. 30.
* LIBERIA: (UNMIL) (From 2003)
-- The United Nations Mission in Liberia, which currently numbers 13,382 total uniformed personnel, including 12,031 troops, was established by the Security Council in 2003 to support the implementation of the ceasefire agreement following Liberia's bloody 1989-2003 civil war, which killed an estimated 250,000 people. There have been 109 UNIMIL fatalities.
* SUDAN, SOUTH: (UNIMIS) (From 2005)
-- The Security Council authorised a peacekeeping force for southern Sudan in March 2005 to monitor a crucial agreement between Khartoum and southern rebels that ended a 21-year civil war that killed 2 million people and forced 4 million from their homes. UNIMIS numbers 9,938 total uniformed personnel, including 8,721 troops.
* WESTERN SAHARA: (MINURSO) (From 1991)
-- Morocco seized Western Sahara after it gained independence from Spain in 1975 and waged a low-intensity guerrilla war with the Polisario Front until the U.N. brokered a ceasefire in 1991 and sent in just over 200 peacekeepers. The U.N.-mediated ceasefire came with the promise of a referendum on Western Sahara, but Morocco has refused to allow a vote.
Sources: Reuters/United Nations:
Here are some details on international peacekeeping in Africa.
PENDING MISSIONS:
* SOMALIA:
-- The U.N. Security Council last month adopted a resolution that said it would consider sending U.N. troops to replace AU peacekeepers, known as AMISOM, but only if the political and security situation improved. -- The AU and East African body IGAD were willing to send more than 8,000 peacekeepers into Somalia, however only 1,600 Ugandan and 600 Burundian troops have actually arrived.
-- Nigerian officials said one battalion of 750-850 men would travel to Mogadishu as soon as the Nigerian government gave its final approval.
* SUDAN, DARFUR:
-- In 2007 the U.N. Security Council finally authorised 26,000 troops for the new operation known as UNAMID.
-- However there are still only around 9,000 peacekeepers on the ground in Darfur.
CURRENT MISSIONS:
* CHAD: EUFor (From 2008)
-- The European Union's EUFor has just over 2,200 troops in eastern Chad and northern Central African Republic, and is due to reach full strength of 3,700 by the end of June.
-- But that is a tiny force to protect nearly half a million Sudanese and Chadians forced from their homes by fighting in all three countries, mostly from Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region.
-- EUFor is designed to complement a hybrid AU-UN force deploying in Darfur to help end several years of civil war fuelled by ethnic divisions. * DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: (MONUC) (From 1999)
-- The U.N. maintains the largest peacekeeping force in the world, with 18,446 uniformed personnel including 16,700 troops, deployed in Congo to help a national army being put together from former warring rebel and militia groups.
-- Around 125 peacekeepers have been killed since 1999.
* ETHIOPIA AND ERITREA: (UNMEE) (From 2000)
-- U.N. Security Council members said in April they would reconsider the future of a peacekeeping force on the Eritrean border with Ethiopia because of obstruction of the force's work by Eritrea.
-- The United Nations has almost completely withdrawn some 1,700 troops and military observers from a buffer zone along the border between the two Horn of Africa rivals after Eritrea cut its fuel supplies. * IVORY COAST: (UNOCI) (From 1999)
-- Around 11,000 U.N. and French peacekeepers (9,168 are from U.N.) monitor the buffer zone stretching across the middle of the world's top cocoa growing nation after a 2002-2003 civil war split it into a government-run south and rebel-held north.
-- Despite a string of U.N.-backed peace deals, Ivory Coast made little progress toward holding elections. However President Laurent Gbagbo announced in April 2008 that a presidential poll would be held on Nov. 30.
* LIBERIA: (UNMIL) (From 2003)
-- The United Nations Mission in Liberia, which currently numbers 13,382 total uniformed personnel, including 12,031 troops, was established by the Security Council in 2003 to support the implementation of the ceasefire agreement following Liberia's bloody 1989-2003 civil war, which killed an estimated 250,000 people. There have been 109 UNIMIL fatalities.
* SUDAN, SOUTH: (UNIMIS) (From 2005)
-- The Security Council authorised a peacekeeping force for southern Sudan in March 2005 to monitor a crucial agreement between Khartoum and southern rebels that ended a 21-year civil war that killed 2 million people and forced 4 million from their homes. UNIMIS numbers 9,938 total uniformed personnel, including 8,721 troops.
* WESTERN SAHARA: (MINURSO) (From 1991)
-- Morocco seized Western Sahara after it gained independence from Spain in 1975 and waged a low-intensity guerrilla war with the Polisario Front until the U.N. brokered a ceasefire in 1991 and sent in just over 200 peacekeepers. The U.N.-mediated ceasefire came with the promise of a referendum on Western Sahara, but Morocco has refused to allow a vote.
Sources: Reuters/United Nations:
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