By politico staff writer
United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix has expressed appreciation to Sierra Leone for its strong support to UN Peacekeeping and for the service and sacrifice of its military and police personnel deployed in different parts of the world.
Sierra Leone’s participation in UN peacekeeping began in the early 1960s when it deployed troops to the UN Operation in the Congo (ONUC). It rejoined peacekeeping in 2004 by providing police officers to the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).
Today, Sierra Leone provides 67 uniformed personnel, including 43 women, to 9 UN peace operations.
The country’s largest deployment is with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) where 28 of its peacekeepers currently serve, 27 of whom are women.
Currently uniformed personnel from Sierra Leone are with the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) along the border between South Sudan and Sudan, and other UN Missions in the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lebanon, Mali and Somalia. Sierra Leone has previously participated in UN peace operations in Liberia, Nepal, Timor-Leste, West Africa, and Yemen.
“Sierra Leone is one of a few countries that once hosted UN Peacekeeping operations (1998-2005), and that now proudly deploys its peacekeepers to other countries in need of international support,” said Lacroix.
Among the peacekeepers Sierra Leone is currently contributing to UN peace operations, nearly two-third are women.
“The UN appreciates the service of the Sierra Leonean peacekeepers who work in some of the world’s most fragile political and security environments. We also pay tribute to 41 of their colleagues who have lost their lives while serving the cause of peace under the UN flag. In addition, we thank Sierra Leone for its efforts to increase the number of women within our ranks through the UN’s Uniformed Gender Parity Strategy,” Lacroix stated.
Sierra Leone also endorsed the Secretary-General’s ‘Action for Peacekeeping (A4P)’ initiative, which aims to strengthen peacekeeping through more targeted mandates, stronger and safer operations, better equipped and trained forces, and by mobilizing support for political solutions.
The UN's Department of Global Communications, in collaboration with the Department of Peace Operations, runs the international multi-year communications campaign titled 'UN Peacekeeping -- Service and Sacrifice.' The campaign expresses the world body's gratitude to the countries that contribute their uniformed men and women to serve in the peacekeeping missions.
Since 1948, more than a million women and men have served as UN peacekeepers. Every day, they make a tangible difference in the lives of millions of the world’s most vulnerable people. UN peacekeepers come from diverse cultures and speak different languages but share a common purpose: the protection of vulnerable communities and the provision of support to countries struggling to move from conflict to peace. Tragically some make the ultimate sacrifice - over 4100 peacekeepers have lost their lives in the cause of peace.
