MONUC honors fallen peacekeepers

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Kinshasa, 14 September 2009- Last week, MONUC Headquarters in Kinshasa was the scene of the fifth memorial service this year for a peacekeeper who died while serving in the DRC. Tribute was paid to the memory of Leonard Avaligbe, from Benin, who died on 17 August last. A similar service at the end of August honoured the memory of Mame Boubou Ndoye, a Senegalese peacekeeper who passed away on 24 July last.

The first UN peacekeepers arrived in the DR Congo on 3 September 1999 as military liaison officers and military observers. The first contingent of Blue Helmets arrived on 29 March 2001.

A total of 105 Blue Helmets have died on mission in the DRC, including 10 military observers. Military observers are particularly vulnerable as they are unarmed, and are often stationed in isolated areas.

Among those who have died from hostile acts were two military observers by militia in Ituri district in 2003; nine Bangladeshi Blue Helmets killed during an ambush in Kafe village in Ituri district in 2005, and eight Guatemalan peacekeepers killed duirng operations against the LRA in Garamba Park in January 2006.

A number of MONUC personnel have lost their lives due to traffic accidents and anti-personnel mine explosions.

In all, 32 Blue Helmets have died as a result of hostile acts, 31 from accidents, and 87 others from illness and other causes.
To date, some 140 MONUC personnel have died since the Mission’s inception, including 29 local staff and 10 international civilian personnel.

MONUC personnel current work in difficult and dangerous environments, particularly in the Kivus and Oriental province where nearly 1000 peacekeepers are deployed in Haut and Bas Uele districts to protect the civilian population against the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels. Many of these peacekeepers live in tents in the middle of the jungle with practically no infrastructure.

For the Force Commander, General Babacar Gaye, “The commitment of our troops goes beyond their professionalism, they are doing extraordinary work in the most difficult conditions ever faced in a peacekeeping mission”.

MONUC’s current force strength stands at 17,303 Blue Helmets, of whom 95% are deployed in the eastern DRC, with 6,850 in North Kivu and 3,900 in South Kivu.