Source: UN News
A senior United Nations peacekeeping official today urged Member States to bolster the world body’s mission in the Central African Republic and Chad, known as MINURCAT, so that it can protect humanitarian operations from banditry, armed clashes and other threats.
“There is now an urgent need to strengthen MINURCAT up to its authorized strength and equip it so it is in a position to meet the challenges facing it,” Edmund Mulet, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, told the Security Council in a briefing today.
Mr. Mulet, presenting Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s latest report on the deployment of MINURCAT, said deployment now stands at 2,425 troops, around half of the 5,200 authorized by the Council, even though it took over security responsibilities in the area from European forces (EUFOR) on 15 March.
He explained that the lag in troop deployment has resulted from an unusually short time period between the authorization of the force and the transfer of authority, in the context of high demand for such peacekeeping forces worldwide.
Eastern Chad faces an acute humanitarian challenge, with over 290,000 Sudanese refugees from the conflict in Darfur, Sudan, more than 180,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and a further 700,000 individuals among host communities in need of food, water and health care.
Northern CAR has also been affected by a spill-over from Darfur as well as by displacement from other armed groups.
Because of deployment difficulties, the Secretary-General’s previous expectation that MINURCAT would reach the full strength needed to protect humanitarian operations in those areas by the end of 2009 had been revised downward, to 4,700 by that date, Mr. Mulet said.
He stressed that equipment gaps – particularly the lack of 6 of 18 military helicopters requested, as well as a critical communications unit – weakened the Mission’s ability to project force and conduct operations on a 24-hour basis.
“I cannot sufficiently stress the risk posed by the lack of military helicopters for the force’s operational capability,” he said, noting that the 15 patrols a day currently being conducted are limited in reach because of the low capabilities of civilian helicopters, particularly in ensuring medical evacuations.
He called on the Council to “leave no stone unturned” to ensure that the Mission has the military assets and political support it needed to fulfil its mandate.
On the political track, little progress had been made between parties in Chad on one hand, and between Chad and Sudan on the other, he said, urging the Council to promote the reconciliation process on both fronts.
He said that in the absence of political progress, alarm is growing among humanitarian groups over an increasing number of armed attacks against aid workers.
While the successful training of and deployment of the 850-strong Chadian community police force, or Détachement Intégré de Sécurité (DIS), could help, Mr Mulet stressed, ongoing support to that force is critical.
He said that it is vital, in addition, that the deployment of the DIS be matched with progress in human rights and judicial and penal reform.
