A United Nations delegation of senior officials and peacekeeping experts has concluded a field visit to Laayoune as part of a comprehensive assessment of the MINURSO mission’s performance, amid growing calls to review its effectiveness.
The visit, which began Wednesday, included a series of meetings with the mission’s civilian and military leadership, as well as Moroccan officials, focusing on the implementation of the UN mandate, particularly monitoring the ceasefire and developments on the ground.
The delegation also held technical discussions with UN force commanders, addressing operational challenges facing the mission, including field mobility, monitoring activities in the buffer zone and the response to low-intensity tensions in the region.
As part of its broader itinerary, the UN team is expected to travel to the Tindouf camps to meet with parties to the conflict and representatives of several UN agencies, including the UNHCR, the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization, in order to assess humanitarian and field conditions.
The mission forms part of efforts to prepare a detailed evaluation report that will be submitted to UN decision-making bodies and is expected to inform discussions on the future of the mission’s mandate and working methods.
The review comes at a time of increasing international scrutiny of long-standing peacekeeping operations. Mike Waltz, the United States’ representative at the UN Security Council, recently said Washington is conducting a strategic review of MINURSO, stressing the need to assess the effectiveness of such missions after decades of deployment and link them to progress toward a political solution.
add your comment
Terms of publication : Not to offend the writer, people, sacred things, or attack religions or the divine self, and refrain from racist incitement and insults.