AU’s force set to be reality:

Africa

The UN peacekeeping chief said Tuesday that the United Nations — which has 80 percent of its peacekeepers deployed in Africa — is very happy that the African Union’s longawaited rapid reaction force will become a reality in July.

Herve Ladsous told a Security Council meeting on peace and security cooperation between the UN and the AU that strengthening this partnership is “absolutely critical” especially because nine of the UN’s 16 peacekeeping missions are in Africa.

He said the African Standby Force, first proposed in 1997, is about to be declared operational at the next AU summit in July, which will mark an important step forward in Africa’s “capacity to respond to crises.”

The AU plan calls for each of the continent’s five regions — north, south, east, west and central — to provide a brigade of 5,000 troops to the force, with one always on standby to respond swiftly to crises anywhere in Africa.

Ladsous called the African Union “the most important partner of the UN in peacekeeping.”

He cited not only the UN’s missions — from Congo, Central African Republic and Mali to South Sudan and it joint mission with the AU in Somalia — but the fact that almost 50 percent of the 105,000 UN peacekeepers worldwide come from AU member states.

The Security Council unanimously approved a statement stressing “the importance of further strengthening cooperation and developing an effective partnership” with the AU — not just in peacekeeping but in early warning of crises, preventive diplomacy, mediation and conflict resolution. (AP)

Ladsous