The United Nations Peacekeeping Forces are groups of soldiers who help keep peace in places of conflict. Most of the time they are observers or soldiers who don’t have so many weapons. Normally, they try to keep the enemies away from each other.

The first UN peacekeepers were sent to the Middle East in 1948 after the first war between Israel and its neighbours. After many weeks of war the UN peacekeepers were able to help make peace. Since then UN soldiers have helped patrol borders between Israel and Syria.

UN soldiers have also helped in Cyprus—a small island in the Mediterranean Sea that has mostly Greek people, but the northern part is settled by Turks. UN peacekeepers control a border that divides the north and the south of the island.

In the 1980s and 90s UN peacekeepers have helped keep peace in many countries. In the middle of the 1990s they were sent to former Yugoslavia to keep peace between the Serbs, Croats and Muslims.

UN peacekeepers are sent to a region only if the Security Council tells them to. They can only help keep peace if all the other countries agree and they may use their weapons only if they are attacked. Most of them wear a blue hat or a helmet so that you can tell if they are UN soldiers.

Since 1948 there have been 54 UN peacekeeping operations all over the world. Over 120 countries have sent soldiers.



Australian peacekeepers in East Timor, Indonesia
Image: Geoffrey C. Gunn, CC BY 3.0,
via Wikimedia Commons



Important peacekeeping missions - past and present
Image (modified) : Keepscases, CC BY-SA 3.0,
via Wikimedia Commons



Words

  • agree = to say yes or to have the same opinion as someone else 
  • attack = to start using violence to hurt a person or damage something
  • border  =  the line that separates two countries 
  • divide = split , break up
  • enemy = someone who is not your friend and whom you fight against
  • former = what was once
  • Mediterranean Sea = the sea between Africa and Europe
  • observer = a person who only watches something and does not take action
  • operation = here: mission
  • patrol = to check or control
  • peace = opposite of war
  • peacekeepers = a job in which solders travel to a dangerous area and try to keep peace there
  • place of conflict = where there is trouble or violence between two or more groups
  • settle = to start living in a place where not many people have lived before
  • soldier = a person who goes to war for their country
  • weapon = guns, bombs, knives and other things you need to fight