U.N. to Send Troops to Mozambique
The Security Council decided unanimously Wednesday to send about 7,500 troops, police and civilians to monitor a cease-fire and election in civil war-torn Mozambique.
It will be the fourth major peacekeeping force established by the United Nations this year and will be the 13th deployed in trouble spots around the world.
The U.N. Operation in Mozambique will oversee an accord signed in Rome Oct. 4 between the African nation’s formerly Marxist government, headed by President Joaquim Chissano, and rebels of the Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo), led by Afonso Dhlakama.
U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has estimated that the operation will cost more than $330 million by the time its mandate ends next Oct. 31.
The force, to be deployed in phases, will monitor a cease-fire and the separation and demobilization of the opposing sides’ troops.
It will also help organize presidential and legislative elections late next year and coordinate an extensive humanitarian program for war-shattered Mozambique, helping resettle between 5 million and 6 million refugees and displaced persons.
A small advance mission, including about 25 military observers, arrived in October, and an interim U.N. special representative was named to head the operation. He is Aldo Ajello, a senior Italian official with the U.N. Development Program.
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