Almost 90 percent of recent deaths or serious injuries to United Nations peacekeepers in Mali have been attributed to improvised explosive devices (IEDs), a U.N. panel has heard.

Ahead of International Day of Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action on April 4, the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) is this week hosting a series of events and discussions in New York.

The theme of the 2015 awareness campaign is ‘More Than Mines,’ encompassing a range of other explosive hazards besides traditional landmines, according to UNMAS Director Agnès Marcaillou.

“This issue, thought to be an issue of the past, has come back in full force. ‘More Than Mines’ includes IEDs, cluster bombs, unexploded ordnance,” Marcaillou told a panel on IEDs on Monday.

Representatives from Afghanistan, Chad, Japan, Colombia, France and the Netherlands told how the dangers of explosive ordnance are shifting; mine threats becoming more manageable, with enforcement of international agreements and reduction of stockpiles, while the occurrence of IEDs is on the rise.

“In Afghanistan, victims of landmines are declining, but they are being replaced with victims of IEDs,” Marcaillou said.

Gombo Tchouli, Political Coordinator of the Permanent Mission of Chad to the United Nations, said UNMAS had recorded 409 casualties from IEDs in Mali since January 2013, with 135 deaths and 274 injuries. Of those 409 casualties, 142 were peacekeepers deployed to the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), 89 percent of the mission’s 158 total peacekeeper casualties.

“IEDs undermine operational effectiveness and freedom of movement, stop peacekeepers moving outward from camp, and prevent implementation of critical mission mandated tasks,” he said.

Eric Schilling, a counter-IED advisor with UNMAS, said U.N. peacekeepers were now more frequently targeted by IEDs and other explosives than in the past.

“The devices can be relatively low-cost, victim-operated pressure plates, up to more sophisticated technology using cell phones. They are limited only by the imagination of the bomb-maker and their ability to gather the materials needed,” he said.

In a session earlier in the day, titled ‘Visions From The Field,’ UNMAS explored how mine-clearing action was being taken in Colombia. Marcaillou called Colombia “one of the most mine-affected countries in the world,” second in impacts only to Afghanistan. Mines are said to have killed 11,000 Colombians since 1990.

Initiatives to engage locals, especially women, in helping to clear mines were hailed as a “best practice” example. Bringing locals in to work, and by extension, assuring them that areas are safe and that they can return to work and school, is seen as the most effective way to restore communities.

“De-mining can’t be imposed from the outside. It is important to connect with people locally, to be working with local communities, and generating benefits for the local population,” said Ambassador Karel van Oosterom, Permanent Representative of the Netherlands.

Activities for International Day of Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action continue all week.

Follow Josh Butler on Twitter at @JoshButler

Edited by Roger Hamilton-Martin

Rwandan Defence Forces deploy to the Central African Republic in late January. Credit: U.S. Army Africa photo by Master Sgt. Thomas Mills

By Samuel Oakford
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 10 2014 (IPS)

Amid alarming reports of ethnic cleansing in the Central African Republic, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Thursday to send an official peacekeeping mission to the conflict-torn country where the minority Muslim population has all but disappeared in much its Western half.

The French-authored resolution would rely on a force of some 10,000 troops and 2,000 police to restore order and prevent further sectarian violence that has left thousands dead and displaced roughly a quarter of the population.“The roads and bridges need to be fixed, all the transportation infrastructure. In Bangui there are only two hotels." -- spokesperson for U.N. peacekeeping

The Council in December mandated a joint AU-French force that thus far has proven unable to clamp down on violence against the Muslim communities, particularly outside of the capital Bangui, where peacekeepers have been light on the ground.

The Council’s morning session was preceded by reports of anti-balaka attacks in the central town of Dekoa, 300 kms north of Bangui, that left some 13 dead.

Despite Thursday’s vote, rights groups point out it will be a full six months before the mission, known as MINUSCA, is operational.

“There are tens of thousands of vulnerable Central Africans who need protection and assistance right now,” said Mark Yarnell, senior advocate at Refugees International.

“Clearly, a U.N. peacekeeping operation, once fully deployed, can contribute to peace and stability over the long term. But this mission will not address the atrocities, displacement, and dire humanitarian needs on the ground today.”

A “re-hatting” of many of the 5,000 AU troops would take place on Sep. 15, the official start date of MINUSCA’s peacekeeping operations. It is unclear, given a paucity of peacekeepers in several other countries, how long it will take the mission to reach full capacity.

“You will not even be getting to 10,000 troops by September given the global shortage,” Yarnell told IPS. “There is no guarantee they will arrive by that date.”

A spokesperson for U.N. peacekeeping told IPS the landlocked country is a particularly difficult location to build the infrastructure for a mission from scratch.

“We can send engineers to assist and we’ll ship some equipment and cargo to Cameroon, the nearest port,” he said. “The roads and bridges need to be fixed, all the transportation infrastructure.  In Bangui there are only two hotels – we will need to construct our bases, starting with sanitary facilities and offices.”

The transition will come nearly two years after the Séléka, a loose coalition of predominantly Muslim rebels from CAR’s neglected northwest and Chad, announced their alliance and took up arms against the government of former president François Bozizé.

In March of 2013, the rebels captured Bangui and for nearly a year presided over a state of anarchy, pilfering what was left of the state infrastructure and targeting Christians with impunity.

Christian anti-balaka self-defence militias with unclear ties to the former regime formed to combat the rebels. Following the arrival of French and African Union troops in December, the militias began gaining the upper hand.

In January, under international pressure, former Seleka leader Michel Djotodia resigned the presidency and ex-Seleka forces began pulling back from the capital, creating a power vacuum and leaving Muslim communities under threat from the vengeful Christian majority.

Peacekeepers were slow to recognise the anti-balaka as a new and larger threat, even as militias repeatedly carried out massacres in Muslim enclaves. The result, according to the U.N., has been the “ethnic-religious cleansing” of the West of CAR.

In a report, Amnesty International called the exodus of Muslims from CAR “a tragedy of historic proportions.”

“Not only does the current pattern of ethnic cleansing do tremendous damage to the Central African Republic itself, it sets a terrible precedent for other countries in the region, many of which are already struggling with their own sectarian and inter-ethnic conflicts,” the report said.

In response to a Central African government request, the resolution gives MINUSCA the emergency capacity to supplement the state’s meagre police force by authorising peacekeepers to make arrests and carry out basic law and order functions.

The first of an expected 1,000 EU peacekeepers arrived this week and are expected to spell French troops that have guarded a makeshift camp for displaced persons at Bangui’s aiport. Until MINUSCA is fully functional, EU advisors are meant to assist local authorities in rebuilding the criminal justice system. Several recent arrests of anti-balaka leaders have seen them flee or be released only hours later.

The Security Council had an opportunity to mandate a peacekeeping mission as far back as November, but due to logistical and financial concerns gave the AU time to demonstrate its capacity at peacekeeping on the continent.

Though observers have highlighted the efforts of troops from Rwanda and Burundi, Chadian peacekeepers were implicated in atrocities of their own, including the deaths of over 30 civilians in a market on Mar. 29. The Chadians were allegedly attempting to evacuate residents from one of Bangui’s few remaining Muslim enclaves when they opened fire.

Chad has since withdrawn its battalion from the AU mission, forcing African leaders to search for a further 850 troops.

The CAR vote comes as Rwanda commemorates its own 100 days genocide that began 20 years ago this week.

Two Tuareg girls playing at Goudebo Refugee Camp in Burkina Faso. The crisis forced 170,000 refugees, mostly Tuaregs and Arabs, to flee north Mali in fear of retaliation from the Malian army. Credit: Marc-André Boisvert/IPS

By Lydia Lim
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 5 2013 (IPS)

As the new 12,600-strong United Nations peacekeeping forces don their blue helmets and prepare to take over from African-led forces in Mali, a nation consumed by corruption and extremism, concerns remain whether U.N. troops will successfully execute this transfer of authority.

The African-led International Support Mission to Mali (AFISMA) contributed its 6,237 troops to the U.N. peacekeepers under the U.N. Multidimensional Integrated Stabilised Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) on Monday.

“Mali has experienced what can only be described as a phenomenal collapse in the last 18 months,” Corinne Dufka, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, told IPS."Mali has experienced...a phenomenal collapse in the last 18 months."
-- Corinne Dufka

After being identified as a relative success story among developing nations, with a few largely democratic elections under its belt, in early 2012 Mali was confronted by a Tuareg movement, along with Islamic armed groups, that led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.

“The current situation in Mali is a result of many human rights violations, so there are certainly concerns that the U.N. troops deployed are setting the right example and that they are beyond any reproach themselves,” Philippe Bolopion, United Nations director of Human Rights Watch, told IPS.

Several human rights organisations have spoken out against the inclusion of Chad, a country censured for its persistent use of child soldiers, among MINUSMA’s troop-contributing nations. Chad was placed on U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s list of shame for countries that recruit children in armed groups.

Chad’s participation in the U.N. peacekeeping mission could be seen as a potential credibility issue, Watchlist Research and Reports officer Layal Sarrouh told IPS.

“We (Watchlist) think from a global standpoint that listed parties who are on the secretary-general’s annexes for committing grave violations against children, should not be included in peacekeeping missions,” Sarrouh said.

Watchlist monitors and reports on the situation of children affected by armed conflicts in specific countries around the world.

Bolopion told IPS that Chad must deliver on its promise to take all necessary steps to end child recruitment. Otherwise, the country should be expelled from the U.N. mission, he said.

Currently, the U.N. does not have a policy to stop Chad from joining MINUSMA, but it does have a screening policy to check for child soldiers before deploying peacekeeping troops.

“We can only hope that the U.N. will deploy every effort to screen its own troops,” Bolopion said.

Other concerns remain that are unique to MINUSMA. Unlike other missions, which typically carry out pre-deployment training for troops in their respective countries before collectively entering the country in conflict, MINUSMA is a consolidation of troops old and new to Mali.

Some peacekeepers are setting foot in Mali for the first time, while others have been active for half a year under AFISMA, with varying levels of training under their belts.

U.N. Security Council Resolution 2085, which authorised AFISMA in December 2012, had strong human rights safeguards and good language on pre-deployment training, according to Sarrouh. However, many of those safeguards were not in place when AFISMA was deployed to combat insurgents only a month after the Security Council’s approval.

“They (AFISMA) were deployed much more quickly than was expected and in such a rapid and unexpected way that certain steps that were to be followed got skipped over,” Sarrouh told IPS. “Now, (MINUSMA) is trying to figure out how to catch up, essentially.”

Watchlist’s new report detailing violations against children by armed groups in Mali points out that over the past year, AFISMA had no standard operating protocols in place for the transfer of child soldiers to Malian authorities.

“The troops have a very large role to play in child protection, and they require training to understand how they should approach that role,” Sarrouh said.

Sarrouh also stated that there have been increased reports of prostitution and sexual exploitation in Mali by AFISMA troops over the past year.

“That’s not unusual, unfortunately, in conflict, and it is very problematic as (AFISMA) troops become peacekeepers,” Sarrouh said. “Under a U.N. peacekeeping mission, there is a higher standard set and more strict guidelines and protocols to be followed, including ones on sexual exploitation and abuse.”

These gaps in training and human rights protocols that were identified with AFISMA will be carried over by MINUSMA unless the new peacekeepers receive sufficient training to uphold standards appropriate to the U.N. mission.

Bolopion said that “Despite the pressure to quickly deploy, we hope the U.N. will take these obligations very seriously.”