UN Peace Operations

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations on Wednesday named two new special envoys to African countries; a former U.S. diplomat to serve in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a Tanzanian ambassador to focus on Somalia.

Roger Meece, who was U.S. ambassador to the DRC from 2004-07, will take charge of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the central African nation, which at a current strength of 20,500 is the largest blue-helmet force anywhere in the world

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - The African Union's Peace and Security Commissioner, Ramtane Lamamra, said on Monday that trends indicate that hybrid operations like the Joint UN-AU Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) may become the preferred approach to peacekeeping missions in the continent in future.
According to Lamamra, the political and economic circumstances suggest that the hybrid approach may emerge as the way out from the quagmires that have dogged peacekeeping missions in Africa.

8 June 2010 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed veteran staffer Youssef Mahmoud of Tunisia as the new head of the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT), which is due to wrap up by the end of the year.
Mr. Mahmoud succeeds Victor da Silva Angelo of Portugal, who served as the Secretary-General’s Special Representative from the mission’s inception until the end of March this year.
 

Kinshasa - The Security Council Friday extended the current mandate of the United Nations peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by one month and agreed to transform the operation so that from then on it becomes a stabilization mission in the vast African nation.
 

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Activists concerned about the situation in Darfur detracted attention and aid from other African conflicts, a U.S.-based foundation said Wednesday.

Darfur's rebellion, which sparked the world's largest aid operation and the largest U.N.-funded peacekeeping mission, has attracted unprecedented attention for an African conflict.

"There is no doubt that American activists were able to bring attention to the conflict in Darfur," a report by the U.S.-based Cato Institute said.

KINSHASA — Hutu rebels attacked an army post in the Democratic Republic of Congo's volatile east, killing at least 19 people including five soldiers, the army said Thursday.

Nearly 150 fighters from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) rebel group staged a pre-dawn attack Wednesday on a military position in Nord-Kivu province, Vianney Kazarama, the army spokesman in the region said.

June 3, 2010 (KHARTOUM) — The Joint chief Mediator and the head of the hybrid peacekeeping mission agreed today to enhance their cooperation in order to end the seven year conflict in Darfur where some 300000 died since 2003.

The mediation announced, last week, the resumption of the peace process on June 6. It also extended the invitation to the two rebel groups participating in the peace process. JEM rebels said they will continue to boycott after their withdrawal on May 2.

The UN Security Council is preparing to vote on whether to extend the mandate for its peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The BBC's East Africa correspondent Peter Greste looks at the impact a pull out could have on the giant but still unstable country.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has had enough. It wants the UN peacekeeping force to go home. All 20,000 of them.

"Don't do anything for us," Congolese Information Minister Lambert Mende told the UN. "We will do it ourselves."

It’s been a tough year for the Department of Peacekeeping at the United Nations. Over 100 members of staff were killed in Haiti’s earthquake. Many more peacekeepers have lost their lives in different parts of the world. The UN held a public ceremony today to honor its peacekeepers and on Thursday, it hosted a small, private remembrance for a Canadian UN staffer who was working in Haiti. Alex Gallafent reports.

The UN Security Council has voted to authorise the withdrawal of up to 2,000 peacekeepers from the Democratic Republic of Congo by 30 June.

However, it has delayed a decision on the full withdrawal of its 20,500-strong force, as sought by Congolese President Joseph Kabila, to next year.

The 15-member body unanimously adopted a resolution to withdraw the troops "where the security situation permits".