The crisis began when Egypt nationalised the Suez Canal Company in July 1956, and France and the United Kingdom protested. By October of that year, Israeli forces launched an attack on Egypt and occupied Sinai, with British and French troops landing soon after in the Suez Canal Zone. The UN was unable to resolve the…
WFP described the decision taken on safety grounds as a major setback to humanitarian efforts in the country’s breadbasket, where staff had been regularly providing aid to over 800,000 people, including many who had escaped the fighting in Khartoum. The ongoing fighting makes it extremely challenging for humanitarian agencies to safely deliver assistance, especially with…
The 10-year-old mission in Mali, MINUSMA is currently winding down ahead of its end of December deadline to leave. In his speech to the UN General Assembly in September this year, Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombohe, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, called for the UN peacekeeping mission, MONUSCO, to begin its withdrawal from the…
The 2023 United Nations Peacekeeping Ministerial also saw new pledges, including of personnel and training, to meet current and future challenges and needs. Peacekeepers serve in the world’s most volatile environments and the threats they face are greater than ever, with rising geopolitical tensions, more complex conflict, and the weaponization of digital tools against them…
In 2022, Baah was one of the 173 Ghanaian women peacekeepers who served in the UN Interim Mission in Lebanon. She was also one of the 6,200 uniformed women peacekeepers – military and police personnel – serving in the world’s 12 peacekeeping missions which are mostly in Africa (6) and the Middle East (3). These women are often…
They are taking part in the 2023 UN Peacekeeping Ministerial, which opens in the capital, Accra, on Tuesday. The two-day meeting aims to secure vital political support and concrete commitments to strengthen UN Peacekeeping efforts to meet current and future challenges and needs, in line with ongoing reform under the Action for Peacekeeping (A4P) framework…
The gathering of defence ministers and others committed to peacekeeping efforts will focus on civilian protection, addressing misinformation and disinformation, promoting safety and security, protecting mental health, and boosting the pivotal role of women in UN missions. Ghana’s Foreign Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, Ghana’s Minister for Foreign Affairs together with senior United Nations officials, said…
Growing national divisions, combined with increasingly complex conflicts, pose a formidable challenge to peacekeeping and the maintenance of security, Jean-Pierre Lacroix told ambassadors in the Security Council chamber. No ‘magic wand’ “Peacekeeping is not a magic wand to help a country return to stability, but with the support of a unified international community, political processes…
Security Council members reiterated strong support for the full withdrawal of the decade-old UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), and the transfer of security responsibilities to the country’s transitional Government, which has been in power since a coup in 2021. Commending the peacekeeping operation and its staff, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for the…
“For 75 years, UN Peacekeeping has helped to end conflict, protect civilians, advance political solutions, and secure sustainable peace,” said Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations. “Peacekeepers are ordinary people working in difficult and dangerous conditions to achieve extraordinary outcomes for the communities they serve,” he said. “The results of their efforts to…
