17 septembre 2015 – source ONU

Le Conseil de sécurité de l'ONU a adopté jeudi une résolution prorogeant le mandat de la Mission des Nations Unies au Libéria (MINUL) jusqu'au 30 septembre 2016, y compris en matière de protection des civils, de soutien à la réforme judiciaire et des forces de sécurité du pays, de promotion des droits de l'homme et de protection du personnel des Nations Unies.

Dans ce texte, les membres du Conseil demandent également au gouvernement libérien et à la MINUL d'intensifier leurs efforts en vue d'une rétrocession aux autorités nationales des compétences en matière de sécurité actuellement exercées par la Mission.

Le Conseil espère que le gouvernement libérien assumera pleinement l'ensemble de ses compétences au plus tard d'ici le 30 juin 2016, date fixée pour la fin de la transition en matière de sécurité.

Dans cette perspective, le Conseil décide de ramener de 3.590 à 1.240 personnes l'effectif militaire et de 1.515 à 606 personnes l'effectif de police de la MINUL, d'ici au 30 juin 2016.

Le Conseil des 15 membres affirme en outre son intention d'envisager d'ici au 15 décembre 2016 un éventuel retrait de la MINUL et le passage à une présence des Nations Unies permettant de continuer d'aider le gouvernement libérien à consolider la paix.

A cet égard, les membres du Conseil prient le Secrétaire général de l'ONU, Ban Ki-moon, d'organiser une mission d'évaluation au Libéria en vue de formuler des recommandations d'ici le 15 novembre 2016 au sujet d'un possible retrait de la Mission.

August 31, 2015: Strategy Page

The UN is rethinking its approach to peacekeeping operations. What was once a small force, which mainly monitored areas where peace had been worked out, the UN now finds itself with a lot more peacekeepers and many of them under fire. After the Cold War ended in 1991 the changes began. After 2000 the UN peacekeeper force expanded from 20,000 to over 120,000. This was complicated by the growing use of Islamic terrorism against UN personnel. That meant it had become more dangerous to be a peacekeeper. Despite the increasing Islamic terror attacks the UN's peacekeeping army suffers less than a hundred combat deaths a year. More than ten times that number are wounded, injured in accidents, or disabled by disease. The peacekeeper combat fatalities come out to 90-110 per 100,000 troops per year. In Afghanistan foreign troops lost about 350-450 in 2012. At the peak of the fighting (2005-7) in Iraq, the losses were 500-600 per 100,000. The rate for U.S. troops in Vietnam and World War II was about 1,500 per 100,000 troops. So the UN peacekeepers are often seeing some considerable violence but at less than a third of the rate of troops in actual contemporary wars and much less than in 20th century conflicts. Still, it’s a lot more violent than Cold War era peacekeeping.

But it’s not the casualties that are causing the biggest problem but the increase in deliberate attacks and, to put it bluntly, the use of terror against the peacekeepers. This has made more countries reluctant to supply peacekeepers, especially Moslem countries, whose troops are accused of being heretics (and not just “enemies of Islam”) by Islamic terrorists and their many supporters among the Moslem population under peacekeeper protection. Most of the peacekeepers have come from South Asia (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal) and most of these are Moslem. Pakistan has been one of the most frequent contributors, sending nearly 150,000 troops to over forty UN peacekeeping operations in 23 countries over the last half century. The Pakistani troops suffered a death rate of 92 per 100,000 but it could have been worse were not the South Asian troops among the best trained and most professional in the UN force.

It’s not just the growing terrorism that is causing difficulty in getting more troops for peacekeeping duty. While the casualties have something to do with this, corruption and lack of success are more often discouraging countries from contributing. The corruption angle is interesting, as it pertains both to the corruption within the UN bureaucracy and the corrupt atmosphere the peacekeepers operate in and often succumb to. Then there is the criticism of how the UN manages these missions. Casualties are expected but the contributing countries feel a lot of their troop losses are the result of restrictive UN rules that limit what peacekeepers can do. This, in turn, is believed most responsible for a lack of success for the peacekeeping missions.

In addition India and Pakistan are not happy with the lack of volunteers from other major nations. The chief reasons for that are the same ones annoying the current peacekeepers (corruption and restrictive rules of engagement). In addition, the major military powers (with the exception of China and Russia) feel they already contribute quite a lot in the form of money to pay the peacekeepers. And the contributors are also upset at the lack of results. A growing number of UN members, including many who contribute little money and no personnel for peacekeeping are coming to realize that the original goals (keeping the peace) are often not met and the peacekeepers will never turn into a military organization that will be able to impose peace. While the UN likes to condemn (bad behavior) and demand that people behave, most member states do not support trying to create a UN police force with real enforcement capabilities. None of the major world powers supports this either. So there is growing pressure to look for other ways to deal with seeming endless supply of new hotspots needing to be cooled down, much less all the older ones that are still smoldering.

Over the last decade the UN has spent $7-10 billion a year on 13-20 peacekeeping operations supported each year. Most of the money comes from the West but a lot of it comes from wealthy (usually because of oil) Moslem nations. To Islamic terrorists that makes the peacekeepers lackeys of the non-Moslem West and Arab “enemies of Islam”. The money pays for the peacekeepers and a smaller support staff. It's actually a pretty cheap way of keeping some conflicts under control or at least out of the headlines. The causes of the unrest may not be resolved by peacekeepers but at least the problem is contained and doesn't bother the rest of the world too much. This is an increasingly unpopular approach to peacekeeping and now even the UN bureaucracy is being forced to consider changes. Fewer UN members back the policy of sending peacekeepers to where they are not wanted (by the local government, usually a bad one that is often the cause of the trouble in the first place) and use some UN approved violence to go after the people responsible for the local mess and end the seemingly endless violence in some areas. This sort of thing seems fine in theory but does not always work in practice.

Meanwhile most of the money is going to a few large peacekeeping operations. Three of the largest get over half the cash and for over a decade this has been Congo, Darfur (western Sudan), and southern Sudan. Africa has the largest number of "failed states" on the planet and, as such, is most in need of outside security assistance. The Middle East is also a source of much unrest. But there the problem isn't a lack of government, just bad government. Most Middle Eastern nations are run by tyrants, who have created police states that at least keep anarchy at bay and peacekeepers out.

Religion has become a touchy subject. While Islamic radicalism is more of a problem to fellow Moslems than it is to infidels (non-Moslems), most Middle Eastern governments avoid blaming Islam for these problems. Since it's increasing difficult to pin the blame on "colonialism" or "crusaders," the Middle Eastern nations encourage other UN members to just stay away from the religious angle altogether. This has made it difficult to deal with peacekeeping issues in Moslem nations, since religion usually plays a part in creating the problem. To the UN, this is just another diplomatic problem to be dealt with, although not very well.

But overall the troops and money that keep all the peacekeeping going are in danger of fading away. Frantic diplomacy is underway by the UN to try and makes things all better, but success is not assured and every year there’s the same drama as cash shortages threaten to shut down many peacekeeping operations.

05.06.2015 par Philippe Chapleau - Lignes de Défense
 

Le contrat AFRICAP 2009 qui devait prendre fin en ce milieu d'année a été prolongé de trois mois (jusqu'en septembre) au profit des sociétés PAE, DynCorp, AECOM, Protection Stratégies, en attendant la mise en place de l'AFRICAP 2015.

Pour lire l'appel d'offres du 15 janvier dernier pour le prochain AFRICAP, cliquer ici.

L'enveloppe pour ces trois mois supplémentaires n'a pas été dévoilée. Mais un document américain précise que, pour l'instant, la valeurs des marchés passés dans le cadre de l'AFRICAP 2009 est d'un milliard de dollars.

AFRICAP et ACOTA. Il est particulièrement ironique que les Etats-Unis aient mis en place deux programmes phare (AFRICAP et ACOTA dont on attend toujours l'appel d'offres) en matière de préparation aux opérations de maintien de la paix alors que ce pays ne contribue que très marginalement à la fourniture d'effectifs pour ce type d'opération. Certes financièrement, c'est l'inverse, mais dans ma logique, ça importe peu. Je m'explique: il est tout aussi ironique que le DoS et le DoD entraînent ou fassent entraîner les contingents africains de casques bleus (Onu) et de casques verts (UA) alors que l'expérience en matière d'OMP des personnels affectés à ces programmes de formation est quasi inexistante.

Ce constat n'est pas nouveau mais il mérite d'être refait alors que Washington (et le DoS en particulier) renégocie avec des prestataires privés les programmes AFRICAP (Africa Peacekeeping Program) et ACOTA (Africa Contingency Operations and Training Assistance).

Les militaires et employés fédéraux, ainsi que les contractors des ESSD comme DynCorp ou AECOM, n'ont guère d'expérience dans le maintien de la paix. Leur approche est très "offensive", alors qu'elle devrait s'inscrire dans la posture onusienne du peacekeeping. Et leur palmarès, en matière de formation, ne leur vaut pas que des éloges.

En fait, cet habillage "OMP" permet aux DoS et DoD de légitimer, auprès du Congrès en particulier, des programmes de formation et de dotation des armées africaines en vue d'un large éventail de missions dont la lutte anti-terroriste. Qui s'en plaindra? Seulement les entreprises privées qui tentent réellement de former des cadres et des soldats aux OMP et de leur faire prendre consciences des exigences éthiques, morales et bien sûr opérationnelles. Ces entreprises, elles ne sont pas US, et c'est malheureux pour des raisons de moyens et de capacités. Elles sont européennes et elles mériteraient d'être plus ouvertement appuyées par les autorités des pays où elles sont installées (France, Allemagne en particluier).

01 April 2015 by Kim Helfrich - defenceWeb

President Jacob Zuma wearing his SA National Defence Force (SANDF) commander-in-chief hat has committed South Africa to more than R1,4 billion in expenditure over the next 12 months on three separate out-of-country military deployments.

None of the three – to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sudan and in the Mozambique Channel – are new. All three see South African airmen, medics, sailors and soldiers stand alongside uniformed counterparts from Africa and other parts on the world in either peace support or peacekeeping missions (DRC and Sudan) and keeping territorial waters safe from pirates (Mozambique).

Zuma yesterday (March 31) informed Parliament of the “extended employment of troops” according to a statement issued by the Presidency.

A total of 1,388 SANDF members will find themselves in the DRC between now and March 31 next year serving “in fulfilment of international obligations of the Republic of South Africa towards the United Nations”. The Presidential statement indicates all will be part of the Force Intervention Brigade (FIB), operating under the MONUSCO umbrella in the strife-torn central African country. According to the UN there are currently 1,322 uniformed South Africans in the overall MONUSCO mission.

The cost of the DRC deployment is R909,687,562.

The SANDF will between now and March 31 next year ensure 850 SANDF members find themselves in Darfur, Sudan, as part of the hybrid AU/UN UNAMID force. This deployment is also “in fulfilment of international obligations” and will cost R369,079,895 for the 12 months.

South Africa’s third and final military commitment outside own borders is the Southern African Development community (SADC) counter-piracy tasking Operation Copper.

“Two hundred and 20 members of the SANDF were employed to monitor and deter piracy and other related illegal maritime activities along the Southern African coast of the Indian Ocean. They were employed for the period for the period April 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015 and the employment has now been extended to March 31, 2016,” the statement said.

South Africa is the lead country in this deployment supplying a naval platform as well as aerial support and the associated manpower. The next 12 months of Operation Copper cost R 127,027,773.

The UN mission in the DRC – MONUSCO - is the largest of its 16 peacekeeping missions internationally with troop, police and military expert contributions coming from 55 countries. There are currently 21,067 of these in the DRC at present according to the latest UN statistics. Countries are literally an A (Algeria) to Z (Zambia).

In Sudan, South Africans find themselves alongside soldiers, police and military experts from 43 other countries in a total combined AU/UN force of 15,863. UN statistics indicate there are currently 783 South African soldiers in the country.

05.07.2014 news.abidjan.net


Le ministre en charge de la Défense, Paul Koffi Koffi, a affirmé, hier à Akouédo, que les Forces républicaines de Côte d’Ivoire disposent d’une capacité opérationnelle pour participer aux opérations de maintien de paix.

Les Forces républicaines de Côte d’Ivoires (Frci) disposent de rudiments nécessaires pour participer aux opérations de maintien de paix, selon Paul Koffi Koffi, ministre auprès du président de la République, chargé de la Défense. Il a fait cette déclaration, hier, à la caserne militaire d’Akouédo, lors de la cérémonie de sortie de la 27ème promotion baptisée Guy Frédéric Assa, des élèves sous-officiers de l’Ecole nationale des sous-officiers d’active (Ensoa). « Nous sommes aptes à participer au maintien de paix dans le cadre de la force internationale, onusienne ou régionale… Nous y sommes déjà au Mali et nous sommes prêts à aller ailleurs, si le besoin se fait sentir », a-t-il déclaré. A l’en croire, l’armée nationale a retrouvé ses marques après plus d’une décennie de crise sociopolitique. «  En trois ans, l’armée est en en train de se reconstruire, le commandement est assis et tout le monde est au travail. Tout cela grâce à la volonté du président de la République, Alassane Ouattara », a-t-il ajouté, devant de nombreuses personnalités politiques et militaires dont la ministre de la Communication, Affoussiata Bamba-Lamine, le chef d’état-major, SoumaÏla Bakayoko et le commandant de la marine, le contre-amiral Djakaridja Konaté. Avant lui, le commandant de l’école, Dem Aly Justin, a rappelé les valeurs qui caractérisent les soldats. « Vous devrez défendre le drapeau, même au péril de votre vie. Affichez toujours dans la discipline et dans le respect votre dévouement pour le drapeau, même quand vient le sacrifice suprême », a-t-il exhorté. Soumaïla Bakayoko a, pour sa part, rappelé la mission régalienne de la Grande muette. « Vous devez  garantir la défense du territoire national, assurer la sécurité des Ivoiriens ainsi que leurs biens », a-t-il conseillé, en se félicitant de la baisse du taux de criminalité dans le pays. « Nous sommes heureux de constater que le niveau de sécurité s’est fortement amélioré», s’est-il félicité. Faut-il le préciser, cette promotion est composée de 261 élèves sous-officiers dont 8 filles portant le grade de sergent. Le public a eu droit, en marge de la cérémonie, à un exercice de méthode de neutralisation des actes de grand banditisme, notamment le terrorisme, le phénomène de coupeurs de route et le comportement des soldats dans le cadre des opérations de maintien de paix.
 

13 May 2014 defenceWeb

The United Nations has shelved plans to deploy surveillance drones as part of its peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast due to improved security, but is now seeking a company to provide the unarmed aircraft for its peacekeeping mission in Mali.

The United Nations wants to expand its use of unmanned aerial vehicles after it successfully deployed the aircraft for the first time in December - to aid U.N. peacekeepers in Democratic Republic of Congo.

It has called for companies to submit expressions of interest to provide surveillance drones for Mali, based in the northern towns of Timbuktu and Gao. The deadline is Wednesday, according to the request by the United Nations.

"It is expected that contracts will be for a period of 3 years," it said. "UAV capability should provide long endurance and be able to fly long range to a point of interest, loiter on patrol and return to base."

Al Qaeda-linked fighters hijacked a rebellion by Tuareg separatists in the Mali's desert north after a 2012 army coup.

France began an intervention more than a year ago which scattered the insurgents across Mali and into neighboring countries, but in recent months the Islamist groups have stepped up their operations.

A U.N. peacekeeping force, known as MINUSMA, assumed authority on July 1 from a U.N.-backed African force in Mali. But while the U.N. Security Council mandated a 12,600-strong force, there are only some 7,500 troops on the ground.

In Ivory Coast the United Nations is gradually reducing the size of its peacekeeping force. The world's top cocoa grower is emerging from a decade of political turmoil that ended in a brief post-election civil war in 2011 when former president Laurent Gbagbo rejected the victory of rival Alassane Ouattara.

"The deployment of UAVs in (Ivory Coast) may no longer be warranted due to changed operational requirements and an improved security situation," said one U.N. peacekeeping official familiar with the issue.

"Their deployment has been put on hold until further notice and consultations with the government continue," he said.

The West African country had asked the United Nations to consider deploying drones along its border with Liberia to offset the planned reduction in peacekeepers. Western Ivory Coast had been the target of deadly raids blamed on supporters of Gbagbo.

Ivory Coast's defense minister, Paul Koffi Koffi, told Reuters that a final decision on the deployment of the surveillance drones by the United Nations would likely be made in June.

"There were some differences of opinion, but it is still in discussion," he said.

The UN is buying Cobra armored vehicles from Turkish company Otokar for use on peacekeeping missions. (Otokar)

Mar. 6, 2014 - By BURAK EGE BEKDIL – Defense News

ANKARA — Turkey’s leading armored vehicles manufacturer, Otokar, has said that it won a $24.6 million contract from the United Nations.

In a news release March 6, Otokar said the contract was for an unspecified number of the company’s Cobra vehicles. The UN will use the Cobras in peacekeeping operations, the company said.

Cobra, used by the armies of 15 different countries, is Otokar’s best known vehicle. Turkish security forces use the four-wheel-drive Cobra for reconnaissance and area control.

Otokar reported 40 percent growth in 2013, with exports of $117 million.

The company also is the developer of the Altay, Turkey’s first indigenous, new-generation main battle tank. In 2008, Otokar signed a $500 million contract with the Turkish procurement office, the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries, to produce four prototypes under the Altay program.

December 12th, 2013 defencetalk.com (RIA Novosti)

Russia’s military will have 500,000 soldiers serving on professional contracts within a decade, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday.

Half of the armed forces will be made up of professional service personnel by 2022 under plans to shift away from conscripts and more than double the number of contract soldiers from the present 220,000.

But Shoigu also acknowledged at an expanded meeting of the Defense Ministry Board that Russia’s armed forces are currently short of nearly one in five troops.

“At present, the Russian military has 82 percent of the required manpower,” Shoigu said.

“We have prioritized full manning of airborne, special forces, naval infantry and peacekeeping units, including those involved in ensuring security during the Winter Olympics in Sochi.”

Russia is undertaking major reform of the military that includes plans to spend $650 billion by 2020 on new equipment and a transition from a conscript army to a largely professional force.

But it has struggled with a shortage of recruits as a result of draft dodging and a shrinking pool of eligible conscripts. Draft evasion and demographic decline have forced the Defense Ministry to halve the number of conscripts in five consecutive recruitment periods since autumn 2011.

The military needs to enrol about 300,000 men during each draft to keep the number of personnel at the required level of 1 million. All Russian men between the ages of 18 and 27 are obliged by law to perform one year of military service.

Shoigu said the Defense Ministry would continue the practice of large-scale snap-alert drills in 2014 to check the combat readiness of the armed forces.

The Russian military has held six surprise inspections of combat readiness and most of the 750 planned army-level exercises since the beginning of this year.

Shoigu said the exercises helped create a realistic picture of the current state of the Russian armed forces and adjust arms procurement plans for various branches of the military.

November 1, 2013. David Pugliese Defence Watch

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) – The Dutch government is sending 368 troops to join a U.N. peacekeeping force in the conflict-torn West African nation of Mali, Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced Friday.

In a letter sent to Parliament, Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans said the Dutch contingent will include 220 troops, including 90 special forces commandos, who will take part in intelligence gathering and operate four Apache helicopters. Ten police officers and a small group of civilian support staff also will join the mission.

Sending soldiers to U.N. peacekeeping missions is an emotionally charged decision for the Dutch, who suffered a national trauma when the country’s soldiers were unable to prevent Bosnian Serb forces from storming the Srebrenica enclave in Bosnia in July 1995, and killing some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the worst massacre on European soil since World War II.

Rutte said the decision to deploy Dutch troops was a tough one, but that “all lessons from previous missions have been learned.”

30.09.2013 SEDE
 

MOSCOW, March 7 (RIA Novosti)

As the Russian air group in South Sudan ends its mission all the equipment will be withdrawn within a week, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Vladimir Drik said on Wednesday.

All Russian soldiers and helicopters will leave the African country by the end of this week, he added.

The move follows a Russian presidential decree after the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) ended on July 11, 2011.

Russia currently has eight helicopters and 120 personnel servicing the UNMISS.

A series of recent tribal clashes in the country, which just won its independence six months ago, is believed to have left some 3,000 people dead, according to local officials.