‘Indispensable’ Islands Of Security – OpEd |
By Maria Kabatanya
In a country as vast as the Central African Republic, mobility is a gigantic task for the peacekeepers of the United Nation’s mission, MINUSCA, in our mandate to provide security and protection.
In many parts of the world, a 600-kilometer journey would be a long but routine affair that traverses an improved road network. In the CAR, crossing that same distance between the capital, Bangui, and MINUSCA’s temporary operating base (TOB) in Koui village in the northwest involved a flight and at least 10 hours on roads where peacekeepers had tragically lost their lives to land mines in 2022.
When it rains, treacherous and barely navigable roads can become deadly, often proving too much for smaller vehicles, let alone the heavily armored personnel carriers used by MINUSCA escorts.
Long distances are a common challenge in conducting day-to-day work in the CAR, as some peacekeepers spend days, if not weeks, on........