Reply #9: It usually varies considerably [View All]

Rarely does a single country contribute all the troops. Sometimes as few as 10-12 from a single nation in a larger contingent. The peacekeeping operation in the Ivory Coast, for examples, is UNOCI - the United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire. UNOCI has 1,500 peacekeepers and police from: Bangladesh, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Chad, China, Croatia, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Gambia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, India, Ireland, Jordan, Kenya, Moldova, Morocco, Namibia, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Senegal, Serbia, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Uruguay, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

In 2007 the Moroccan unit in UNOCI was suspended for allegations of widespread sexual abuse of refugees. UN investigation found no evidence and the unit was re-instated.

For a lot of the smaller/poorer countries, UN peacekeeping is a moneymaker. I can't remember what the UN pays the contributing government per soldier per day, but it's often many many times that country's cost per soldier per day, therefore the more troops that government sends, the more they stand to gain. Since it is sometimes seen as a moneymaker, the quality of the troops sent is in those cases considered secondary. I would honestly wonder in some cases if some soldiers are even being told what they're supposed to be there for. For the soldiers, who (since they're a long way from their country) might not get paid at all during their tour, they have been known in some cases to resort to theft, extortion, etc. to make a little side money. Not a great leap from there to other forms of power-based abuse.