United Nations, Jan 23 – More than 4,100 “blue helmets” have died since the UN launched its first peacekeeping operation 75 years ago, a milestone that the organization is commemorating this month with an information campaign.
In the context of this anniversary, the head of peace operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, will visit Jerusalem, where the first of the deployed missions is based, the United Nations Organization for the Surveillance of the Truce, created in 1948 and which is still in force.
Since then, the organization has carried out a total of 71 operations in which troops from 125 countries have served, spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said on Monday.
In total, the UN has accumulated 4,266 casualties in those 75 years of history, taking into account deaths in peace missions and also some special political operations.
The mission that accumulates the most victims is the United Nations Interim Force for Lebanon (UNIFIL), with 325 deaths since it was created in 1978.
However, in recent years by far the most dangerous operations have been those carried out in African countries such as Mali or the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which in much less time have accumulated more than 250 deaths.
Lacroix’s visit to Jerusalem will be part of a tour of the Middle East that he has started in the Golan Heights, where “blue helmets” are also stationed, and which will also take him to Lebanon.