Why More UN Women Peacekeepers Are Needed
Having seen first-hand how United Nations female
peacekeepers helped her own country rebuild, Sierra Leone’s
highest-ranking female police officer is now hoping to duplicate those
successes in the war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur.
Assistant Inspector-General Kadi Facondo is among the many police officers of the joint UN-African peacekeeping mission in Darfur (known as UNAMID) who are working to help local women deal with sexual and gender-based violence and other threats and challenges.
Ms. Facondo told the UN News Centre that her own country, Sierra Leone, has made important inroads in tacking the problems of sexual violence.
Thanks to the assistance of an earlier UN peacekeeping mission in the West African country, the police – for whom she has worked for more than a quarter of a century – set up family support units to encourage survivors of rape, domestic violence and other crimes to come forward.
These centres now number more than 81 across the country, and the “fact that we keep getting requests to establish more tell us that we are doing a good job,” Ms. Facondo said, stressing that the success is partly attributable to the efforts of female blue helmets.
Women and children, she observed, were much more comfortable talking to female peacekeepers. Not only did the presence of women police officers and enhanced training result in “issues [coming] out that they wanted to address within their communities,” but also in the expansion of the investigation of cases.
Now at UNAMID, Ms. Facondo underscored the importance of having gender officers when escorting women to collect firewood, where they face risks of murder, rape and other violence.
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