NIGERIA: Peacekeeping Targets 20% Women Participation in 2014

Nigeria hopes to increase the number of its women participating in UN peacekeeping missions by 20 per cent in 2014, a top UN military officer, Lt.-Gen. Chikadibia Obiakor, has said.

Obiakor, a Nigerian, and the UN Military Adviser on peacekeeping Operations, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in New York that Nigeria would also encourage other countries to meet a UN resolution to increase the number of women in peacekeeping.

Resolution 1325, passed in 2000 on "Women, Peace and Security", recognised that since women bear the brunt of armed conflicts, they should have a commensurate role in their prevention and resolution.

Obiakor said: "what Nigeria has done generally is to bring to the fore, the importance of having more women in its peacekeeping contingents."

"Not that the 20 per cent has been attained, but we have left where we were. There are cultural issues in that there are some countries, which are finding it difficult to include women, but we are encouraging such countries to include women in their peacekeeping operations. So, we are on the rise and working towards reaching the mark by 2014,'' he said.

NAN reports that out of the 124,000 peacekeepers from 115 countries currently serving in 15 missions around the world, women make up only 8 per cent of the UN police and 2 per cent of its military personnel.

Nigeria has more than 5,500 peacekeepers in the field.

The UN military adviser said women peacekeepers were the perfect example of "one-to-one communication" needed to encourage those who are affected and traumatised in a conflict situation.

"Women in conflict areas inspire a lot of confidence in the female folks and children (those who bear the brunt in the conflict areas). If you have women the chances are that you get to know more about the conflict and what they think about the solution and what their needs are," Obiakor, a former Force Commander of the UN Mission in Liberia said.

The Military adviser, who acknowledged that women peacekeeping has its own side of challenges, said "some of the challenges are mitigated because the women are trained."

"The problem is in administration because most serving women are married; they have children and husband and that in itself is a drag because it bothers sometimes on their moral. But most times, you find that women are more enthusiastic to discharge their duties and they are more emotionally attached to courtesy in post-conflict areas with regards to the population, which are mostly women and children," he said.