Today, the United Nations celebrates the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers under the theme: “70 years of Service and Sacrifice”. The celebration is not only to pay tribute to the people who have served and continue to serve in UN peacekeeping operations, but also to honour fallen heroes, who have lost their lives to "save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”.
On this day in 1948, the Security Council authorized the deployment of a few military observers to the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO). Since then, more than one million men and women from more than 120 countries have served under the UN flag in 71 peacekeeping operations. Currently, more than 110,000 military, police and civilian staff serve in 14 peacekeeping missions in Africa, Asia and Europe.
As a part of its commitment to maintaining international peace and security, Egypt is the 7th largest contributor to peacekeeping missions, the 10th largest contributor of troops and 2nd largest contributor of police. Egyptian peacekeepers currently serve in six operations, namely: MINUSCA, MINUSMA, MONUSCO, MINURSO, UNMISS and UNAMID. Egypt has also been heavily involved in the development of doctrine and policies of peacekeeping.
CCCPA cooperates with the Egyptian Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense to deliver core pre-deployment training for all Egyptian military peacekeepers. Since 2014, CCCPA has provided 38 trainings for 10,756 peacekeepers. CCCPA has also partnered with the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations (UNDPKO) to organize the 21st United Nations Senior Mission Leaders Course in 2015, the Training of Trainers (ToT) course on the revised UN Core Pre-Deployment Training Materials (CPTM), the United Nations Military Units Manual (UNMUM) Seminar in 2016 and the United Nations Senior National Planning Programme (UNNPP) in 2018.
CCCPA is currently the president of the International Association of Peacekeeping Training Centers (IAPTC) (2017-2018), the Secretariat of the Association (2017-2022) and the Chair of the Integrated Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Training Group (IDDRTG). The Center is also a member of the Board of Directors of the African Peace Support Trainers Association (APSTA).
Photo: Egyptian troops from the United Nations MONUSCO peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2015.
By MONUSCO Photos - 25 avril 2015. Bukavu, Sud Kivu – RD Congo: des casques bleus égyptiens lors d’une cérémonie en leur honneur avant leur départ, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46294197
