UN peacekeepers request UAVs

Permanent members of the United Nations Security Council have responded positively to a proposal for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to be provided for peacekeeping missions.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous outlined a proposal to deploy UAVs to support the UN Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) in a closed session of the Security Council on 8 January.

After the meeting, France's permanent representative said on social networking site Twitter: "The UN in Congo needs additional and modern assets, including drones, to be better informed and more reactive."

US State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland echoed these comments a day later. "The United States does support the UN's proposal to use unarmed UAVs, for example in the Democratic Republic of Congo [DRC] to increase the surveillance capacity of the UN peacekeeping operation MONUSCO," she said. "We're also looking at other missions where this might be possible." However, non-permanent Security Council member Rwanda has reservations about peacekeeping UAVs.