British aid worker Linda Norgrove gets postumous award

AID worker Linda Norgrove, who died last year after being kidnapped in Afghanistan, has received a posthumous Green Star award from the UN and Green Cross International.

The 36-year-old was killed by a grenade thrown by a US soldier in a failed rescue attempt.

Award organisers said: "Her death was a great tragedy not only for her family and friends but also for Afghanistan."

New Zealand troops deploy to Timor Leste

A 62-strong New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) contingent from the 1st Battalion Royal New Zealand Infantry left for a six-month deployment to Timor- Leste Saturday, to support the Australian-led International Stabilization Force (ISF) in Timor-Leste.

The NZDF has supported various peacekeeping operations in Timor-Leste since 1999, when a referendum was held on independence from Indonesia, sparking violence.

The NZDF contribution includes a military observer with the United Nations Mission in Timor-Leste, five advisors to the F-FDTL, and four personnel in the National Support Element based in Darwin, Australia.

Sudan: gunmen shoot four UNMIS peacekeepers

KHARTOUM, 11th May: Unidentified gunmen shot and wounded four Zambian peacekeepers belonging to the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), who were on patrol in Sudan's Abyei area, UNMIS said in a statement today (Wednesday).

The shooting took place on Tuesday afternoon in Goli, some 25 km north of Abyei town, the statement said, adding the four peacekeepers, one of whom is in a serious condition, have been taken to Abyei town for treatment.

"UNMIS strongly condemns this unprovoked attack and has commenced an investigation into the incident," the statement said.

The attack came after an agreement reached between north and south Sudan governments to withdraw all their forces unauthorized to be deployed at the disputed Abyei area and to implement a security agreement inked earlier under the support of the African Union.

UN aid worker killed in Sudan

Santino Pigga Alex Wani, a Senior Programme Assistant working with the UN World Food Programme was killed during an ambush by armed assailants in Jonglei state on 22nd April 2011.

Santino, a Senior Programme Assistant, was on mission with members of WFP’s cooperating partner, Joint Aid Management, or JAM, when the vehicle they were travelling in was attacked.

 

Santino first started working with WFP in 2004. He was born in the Western Equatoria State capital of Yei in Southern Sudan. He leaves behind a wife and a teenage son and daughter.

UN attack Afghanistan: two suspects in custody

KABUL - Afghan officials claim they have in custody two insurgents suspected of involvement in the killing of seven United Nations workers in Mazar-i-Sharif on 1st April.

Reports claim an Afghan government team investigating the attack has identified three men thought to be involved in the killings. An investigator with the Interior Ministry, Mohammad Akbari, said two of the suspects were in possession of a rifle used in the attack.

The UN employees killed in the attack are: Siri Skare (a Norwegian military officer); Joakim Dungel (a Swedish lawyer) and Filaret Motco (a Romanian citizen). Also killed were four Gurkha security guards.

French troops deploy to Ivory Coast

French troops and United Nations peacekeepers are joining the fight against Ivory Coast's incumbent president as forces backing the country's internationally recognized leader launch another attack for control of the commercial capital, Abidjan.  

United Nations and French helicopters in Abidjan have fired on forces loyal to incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo to stop them from using heavy weapons.  A spokesman for the U.N. mission in Ivory Coast says helicopters fired on Gbagbo's troops at the main military barracks as well as the presidential palace and Gbagbo's residence.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy ordered French forces to join U.N. operations to protect civilians and remove Gbagbo's heavy artillery.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon asked President Sarkozy for what he called "urgent" military operations to silence mortars and rocket launchers that have been used against civilians and U.N. headquarters in Abidjan.

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Foreign UN workers killed

Mazar-i-Sharif : Eight foreign employees of the United Nations were killed on Friday 1st April 2011 in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif after protesters over-ran their compound, police said, in what looks to be the deadliest ever assault on the UN in Afghanistan.

Two of the dead were beheaded by attackers who also burned parts of the compound and climbed up blast walls to topple a guard tower, said Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai, a police spokesman for the northern region.

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Japan asked to send Medics to Afghanistan

TOKYO, 21st February 2011:

The U.N. security mission in Afghanistan has asked Japan to treat injured people under its envisioned plan to dispatch Self-Defense Forces medical officers to the Central Asian country to provide human resources training, Japanese government sources said Sunday.

The International Security Assistance Force, led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, has not specified who it wants the Japanese medics to treat, but the possibility that it could include soldiers injured in battle cannot be denied, the sources said.

Read full story at JapanToday