UN wants Brazilian peacekeepers for CAR

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The United Nations wants Brazil to send troops to join its peace mission in the Central African Republic, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, UN head of peacekeeping operations, said in an interview.

The UN Security Council this month approved deployment of an additional 900 peacekeepers to protect civilians in the impoverished landlocked nation, where violence broke out between Muslims and Christians in 2013.

Lacroix said violence had increased in the east, largely due to a security vacuum left by the departure of Ugandan troops, part of a separate US-supported African Union task force tracking Lord’s Resistance Army rebels.

The request for troops from Brazil, which has just ended a 13-year mission in Haiti, must be agreed to by President Michel Temer and approved by the Brazilian Congress.
“Brazil has a huge degree of know-how and professionalism and we definitely need those kinds of troops in our peacekeeping operations,” Lacroix said in Brazil’s capital, ahead of a meeting with the top brass of the country’s armed forces.

The troops did a “fantastic, really exceptional” job in Haiti, where they improved the security situation by establishing a relationship of trust with the population and exhibited good conduct and discipline, he said.

Brazil is emerging from its worst recession on record and a huge government budget deficit could weigh on a decision to send more troops abroad, though its contribution to peacekeeping enhanced the South American nation’s international influence.

UN peacekeeping forces are facing the pinch of the United States push to reduce costs. Washington pays more than 28% of the $7.3 billion annual UN peacekeeping budget.

In June, the UN agreed to $600 million in cuts to more than a dozen missions for the year ending June 30, 2018.

Lacroix said the peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast had been closed, troop deployment in Sudan’s Darfur was being reduced and next year the peacekeeping operation in Liberia would also be closed.
“There is an expectation we be prudent and use our resources in the most cost-effective way we can,” said Lacroix, a French diplomat who has been in the role since April.

The political objectives and efficiency of almost all of the UN’s 15 peacekeeping operations worldwide were under review, Lacroix said.