While on peace missions, UN blue helmets risk virus attacks

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, overstretched UN peacekeepers were a thin blue line helping to protect civilians, support peace agreements and contain conflicts in hot spots and war zones across the globe.

And as the Covid-19 virus spreads in countries already weakened by war and poverty, it will not only threaten the lives of millions, but could also tip the balance from tenuous peace back to conflict and despair.

To extend the global fight against Covid-19 to areas struggling to emerge from conflict, we need to continue sustaining and promoting peace and stability.

Together with our partners, UN peacekeeping missions are working to achieve four objectives: One is to support local efforts to fight the spread of the novel coronavirus, second is keeping UN personnel safe and ensure they receive the best available care by enhancing medical testing and treatment capabilities, the third is ensuring that peacekeepers are able to continue their work without spreading the virus, by practicing social distancing and other mitigation measures, and fourth is to advance their difficult mandate to support peace and contain conflict even as Covid–19 spreads.

As UN Secretary-General António Guterres recently told the Security Council, this pandemic could potentially lead to an increase in social unrest, a lapse in state authority and even violence that would greatly undermine our collective capabilities to fight the virus.

The brutal statistics of Covid-19 do not just reflect a global health crisis, they signal a fundamental threat to the maintenance of international peace and security.

While peacekeeping missions must protect themselves from Covid-19, they continue to reach out to local communities, protecting civilians and assisting host governments to contain the virus.

The blue helmets also support political processes and help to build government capacity.

In the DRC, peacekeepers recently helped free 38 civilians, including women and children, who had been ab-ducted by an armed group in the country’s east, as they helped the national army to repel an attack.

In Somalia, the UN has been supporting AU soldiers and the government to develop their own Covid-19 preparedness and response plans, while working to ensure that terrorist groups do not seize the opportunity to strike while attention is focused on the pandemic. The struggle against Covid-19 may be a “second front” for the peacekeepers, but both battles continue.

Last week, the UN secretary-general decided to suspend the rotation of all our troops and police until June 30.

Such measures will keep our blue helmets on the ground, where they are needed most, and will help protect and reassure communities and UN colleagues alike by postponing the movement of thousands of personnel to and from home countries and transit points.

As the UN secretary-general said when he called for a global ceasefire, there should only be one fight in the world today - our shared battle against Covid-19.

Atul Khare is the Under-Secretary-General of the UN Department of Operational Support. Jean-Pierre Lacroix is the under secretary-general of the UN Department of Peace Operations.