New Threats in Africa Mean New Questions for UN Peacekeeping: Interview with Major General Patrick Cammaert

Kitgum IDP camp from the air, Uganda
A camp of internally displaced persons (IDP) in Kitgum, Uganda.

New types of UN peacekeeping brigades could compromise the United Nations’ basic principle of impartiality and put UN personnel, their families, and other organizations at risk, said Major General Patrick Cammaert, the former military advisor to the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations and former Eastern Division Commander to the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Mr. Cammaert said that although the UN’s first “intervention brigade” helped the Congolese army defeat the M23 rebel group in early November, “there are a lot of questions to be raised before we can say this is now the recipe for the future.”