United Nations confirms 32 members of the peace forces killed in armed attacks during 2022

MADRID, 21 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The United Nations has verified the death of 32 troops and associated personnel of its peacekeeping forces in armed attacks during 2022, particularly in Mali and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as reported by the UN Staff Union.

The deceased have been identified as 28 soldiers and four police officers, including a woman, Aitor Arauz announced in his balance sheet, presented on Friday.

The UN regrets that, for the ninth consecutive year, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) has been the body most affected by violence, registering 14 fatalities.

In second place is the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), which registered 13 deaths, followed by four fatalities in the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic ( MINUSCA) and one fatality in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

Arauz recalled that "peacekeepers and the civilian personnel who work alongside them are at the forefront of the work of the United Nations in the most difficult environments in the world."

"We honor the memory of our 32 colleagues whose lives were taken in 2022," he added, before denouncing "every malicious attack against UN personnel" as "a blow to peacekeeping, one of the pillars of the building multilateral".

"It is a collective responsibility of the international community to establish appropriate mechanisms to ensure accountability for these heinous acts, which may constitute war crimes under international law," added the union president.

By nationality, the Blue Helmets who died in 2022 were from Bangladesh (3), Chad (4), Egypt (7), Guinea (1), India (2), Ireland (1), Jordan (1), Morocco (1) , Nepal (1), Nigeria (2), Pakistan (7), the Russian Federation (1) and Serbia (1).

This balance brings the number of deaths among peacekeepers to 494 killed in the last 12 years with improvised explosive devices, rocket-propelled grenades, artillery fire, mortar shells, land mines, armed and successive ambushes, attacks on convoys, suicide bombings and targeted killings.