U.N. peacekeepers face greater threats from complex conflicts

The U.N. currently has 12 far-flung peacekeeping operations — six in Africa, four in the Middle East, one in Europe and one in Asia — with the more than 66,000 military personnel from 121 countries

The more than 66,000 United Nations peacekeepers are confronting greater threats today because conflicts have become more complex and are driven by an increasing number of factors ranging from ethnic tensions and the impact of organized crime to illegal exploitation of resources and terrorism, the U.N. peacekeeping chief said on November 19.

Jean-Pierre Lacroix said in an interview with The Associated Press that even compared to two or three years ago, “most of our peacekeeping missions have a political and security environment that has deteriorated.”

In addition and “equally important," he said, is that the conflicts are “multi-layered" and very often local and national, but also regional and global. He pointed to Africa's impoverished Sahel region, which is seeing increasing terrorist activity, as an example.