UN peacekeepers News

UNIFIL currently has around 10,500 peacekeepers from 50 different countries, including India. 

India is set to assume UNSC presidency in August Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla will visit New York

The commanding officer of the next Indian contingent to UN peacekeeping in South Sudan has said "will keep the Indian flag high". Col D Jothish said, "We are the face of the nation and we understand that. We are under the UN flag but we never forget, we are peace ambassadors from our country."

The identity of the attackers was not immediately clear UN peacekeeping and French forces are stationed in northern Mali to combat well-armed jihadist groups seen as the gravest threat to security across Africa`s Sahel region.

The survey comes amid the wider "Me Too" movement around the world against sexual harassment and assault.

The UN has been in the spotlight for several years over allegations of sexual abuse by its peacekeepers, and there have been complaints by staff of sexual harassment.

Suspected Ugandan rebels killed at least 15 Tanzanian U.N. peacekeepers and wounded 53 others in a raid on a base in Congo that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday called the worst attack on the organisation in recent history.

About 120 Rwandan peacekeepers have arrived in South Sudan, United Nations said on Tuesday, the first detachment of 4,000 extra troops approved by the U.N. last year to help protect the capital of Africa`s newest country. 

At least 15 people died in clashes between UN peacekeepers and former rebels in the centre of the chronically restive Central African Republic, a humanitarian source said on Sunday.

French President Emmanuel Macron is due in Mali on Sunday to consolidate Western backing for a regional anti-jihadist force, as France beefs up its counter-terror operations in the area.

The attack is just the latest to target the 12,000-strong force in the west African nation. Guinean and Chadian soldiers make the majority of those at the Kidal camp.  

India has provided almost 200,000 troops in nearly 50 of the 71 peacekeeping missions over the past six decades.

The United States on Wednesday threatened to push for a UN arms embargo on South Sudan if the government blocks the deployment of a new regional force and impedes the work of UN peacekeepers.

The UN has said it is the responsibility of member states to ensure they impose the "strongest disciplinary and criminal sanctions" against any of their peacekeepers found guilty of sexual exploitation.

The United Nations on Wednesday said it has widened an investigation of allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by foreign peacekeepers in Central African Republic and notified authorities in France, Gabon and Burundi about the charges.

The UN report for the first time has given nationalities of the peacekeepers involved in sexual exploitation cases.

UN peacekeepers are facing fresh allegations that they sexually abused four young girls in the Central African Republic.

13 French soldiers, two from Equatorial Guinea and three Chadian troops were implicated in the alleged abuse of children between Dec 2013 and June 2014.

No group had yet claimed responsibility for the attack, which came eight days after a siege at the luxury Radisson Blu hotel in Mali's capital Bamako.