A road traffic company, made up of the Central African National police with assistance from UN police, above, regulates traffic and writes accident reports in the capital, Bangui. The country is on the verge of either a breakthrough to peace or relapsing into a civil war. HERVE SEREFIO/MINUSCA
Sgt. Maj. Albert Ndikumana, 29-year-old Burundian peacekeeper, was killed during an ambush on Aug. 23, 2018, in the village of Pavika, Central African Republic. He received “the last honors of his UN family,” the Minusca mission said, on Sept. 6 in a ceremony held at its headquarters in Bangui. Beyond such official recognition, peacekeepers murdered in the line of duty receive little notice from the UN in New York. LEONEL GROTHE/MINUSCA
A US-led Security Council resolution focused on improving peacekeepers’ performance was approved on Sept. 21, 2018, but is devoid of details on how the UN will measure such assessments. Pakistani troops, above, are among the UN’s largest continents in peacekeeping. MARK GARTEN/UN PHOTO
An Indian peacekeeper for the UN mission in southern Lebanon monitors the Blue Line near the town of Cheebba, Jan. 31, 2018. The negotiations to renew the UN operation were calmer this year than last year, says the author, but the “bellicose rhetoric” of the United States could return. PASQUAL GORRIZ/UN PHOTO
Jane Holl Lute, an American who has worked for the UN and the US government in various high-level jobs, is now asking the two long-feuding sides in Cyprus to meet for talks once more. She is on a tight deadline, however. Here, she visits the UN mission in Central African Republic. MINUSCA
In June 2018, a new rotation of a Rwandan police unit arrived in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, to work for the UN mission there. The unit consists of 80 men and 80 women and is led by a female officer. Before arriving in Juba, the unit underwent a six-month pre-deployment training in Rwanda. UNMISS
Justine Masika Bihamba, who runs a women’s rights group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, told the UN Security Council on July 26, 2018, that the UN peacekeeping mission there can no longer afford to pay for human-rights experts on the ground, a result of budget cuts recently approved by the UN General Assembly. JOE PENNEY
