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MANILA, Philippines -- The Philippines is sending 100 more peacekeepers to Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur, where about 200,000 people have died from the combined effects of war and famine, the Philippine Mission to the United Nations said Thursday.
Ambassador Hilario Davide Jr., Philippine Permanent Representative to the UN, said Manila would beef up its 42 peacekeepers already deployed to Africa’s largest nation as part of the so-called hybrid force of the UN and the African Union.
Davide, in his report to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila, said the new deployment of Filipino peacekeepers was in response to the request of UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon for the international community to help find a solution to the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.
The UN chief made the request during his meeting with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on the sides of the 62nd UN General Assembly in September and during the meeting between UN Undersecretary General for Peacekeeping Jean Marie Guehenno and Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo in New York last November.
Davide said the Philippine participation in the UN African Union Hybrid Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), touted to be the biggest peacekeeping operation ever assembled by the UN, will bolster Manila’s standing as one of the largest provider of individual police officers to UN peacekeeping operations.
UN statistics as of end-April show Philippine police officers account for 274 of the 627 Filipino peacekeepers deployed in various UN mission areas around the world.
According to the Philippine Mission, with this new commitment, UNAMID will host the largest number of Filipino police officers, overtaking the UN Integrated Mission in Timor Leste (UNMIT) where 131 Filipino police forces are presently deployed.
The remaining Filipino peacekeepers are assigned in UN missions in Afghanistan, Cote d' Ivoire, Darfur, Georgia, Haiti, Kosovo, Liberia, Nepal, Sudan, and Timor Leste.
In addition to individual police officers, the Philippines has 23 military and staff officers and 330 troops serving in the UN peacekeeping missions in Cote d' Ivoire, Darfur, Liberia, Sudan, and Timor Leste, putting it on the list of the top 30 troop/police contributing countries.
The number of Filipino peacekeepers is expected to increase in the coming months with the request of the UN for the deployment of additional peacekeepers to support the requirements of new UN peacekeeping missions in Darfur, Chad, and the Central African Republic.
