Nepal has climbed to the third position on the list of the countries contributing the largest number of peacekeeping troops to the United Nations. Nepal is only behind Bangladesh and Ethiopia in this respect.
Nepali Army spokesperson Santosh Ballav Poudyal says 5,154 Nepali ‘blue helmets’ are mobilised in 12 peacekeeping missions in various conflict-hit countries of the world currently. Of them, 176 are women. In total, 122 countries are contributing their troops to peacekeeping missions at the call of the United Nations.
“The ranking changes due to the reduction in the number of troops contributed to UN peacekeeping missions by other countries and the increase of our troops. At present, the number of troops from Rwanda has decreased and we have climbed to the third position from the fourth,” the army spokesperson says, adding that the United Nations has asked for additional 450 soldiers from Nepal.