United States President, Barack Obama announced on Monday more than 50 countries have pledged some 40,000 peacekeepers for possible deployment on United Nations missions, as well as helicopters, medical units and training and equipment to deal with roadside bombs.
Obama chaired a summit of world leaders at the UN to garner commitments to boost the capacity and capabilities of UN peacekeeping and to allow the world body to deploy forces more rapidly if a new operation is created.
“Our goal should be to make every new peace operation more efficient and more effective than the last,” Reuters quoted Obama as saying at the forum.
The U.S ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, said in addition to some 40,000 new troops and police, more than 50 countries had pledged to provide more than 40 helicopters, 15 military engineering companies and 10 field hospitals.
China made one of the biggest commitments. President Xi Jinping pledged to set up a “permanent peacekeeping police squad and build a peacekeeping standby force of 8,000 troops.”
Amid a stream of allegations of misconduct and sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers in Central African Republic, U.S officials said the surplus troops will also allow the UN to exercise more discretion with its 16 current missions.
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