UN members discuss peacekeepers' safety

Several member states of the United Nations have called for plans to ensure the safety and security of peacekeeping personnel.

The UN secretary-general's latest report, presented during the 258th plenary meeting of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations on Monday, highlighted key developments in UN peacekeeping, Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday.

Fatalities among uniformed peacekeepers due to acts of violence almost doubled in 2017, from 34 in 2016 to 61, the highest recorded for peacekeeping since 1994, according to the report.

The report also found that the total cost of occupational safety and health fatalities, injuries and illnesses to the organisation and its peacekeeping operations was approximately 250 million US dollars a year.

On behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Omar Kadiri, Morocco's deputy permanent representative to the UN, said that the killing of UN peacekeeping personnel and all acts of violence against such personnel constitute a major challenge to the credibility of UN field operations and ability of peacekeepers to carry out their mandate.

He called upon the Secretariat to ensure that adequate measures are taken to improve the physical security infrastructure of camps.

--IANS

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