Nigeria Requests More UN Funding For African Peacekeeping Missions - Foreign Minister

Nigeria requested on Monday the United Nations to provide more funding for peacekeeping operations on the African continent during the ongoing session of the Assembly of the Heads of State and Government of the African Union in Ethiopia, Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama told Sputnik on Monday

ADDIS ABABA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th February, 2019) Nigeria requested on Monday the United Nations to provide more funding for peacekeeping operations on the African continent during the ongoing session of the Assembly of the Heads of State and Government of the African Union in Ethiopia, Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama told Sputnik on Monday.

The two-day Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of States and Governments of the African Union began in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on Sunday.

"We did want the United Nations to provide more funding for African peacekeeping initiatives on the continent," Onyema said.

When asked about the amount of funding that the country was looking for, Onyeama stated that it was up to the United Nations to determine it.

According to the 2018 yearbook of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Africa hosted 25 of the total 63 multilateral peace operations held in 2017, the most of any continent. In addition, at least half of the ongoing UN peacekeeping missions are happening in Africa.

Nigeria has been one of the key contributors of personnel and troops to the UN peacekeeping missions, having taken part in dozens of operations. According to the UN data, as of December, Nigerian troops were involved in operations in Mali and Sudan's Darfur region. Nigeria also has its police forces deployed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Mali, South Sudan and Sudan.