UN BASE 964: On the deserted border between Lebanon and Israel, Spanish UN peacekeepers have for more than 10 months effectively been caught in a war zone.
Several Blue Helmets have been wounded in the crossfire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, which has also left dozens of Lebanese civilians dead in fallout from the war between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza.
“Sometimes we need to shelter because of the shelling... sometimes even inside the bunkers,” said Alvaro Gonzalez Gavalda, a Blue Helmet at Base 964 of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
To reach the base, AFP journalists escorted in a UNIFIL convoy passed through virtually deserted villages. Only the occasional grocer or automotive repair shop were still open along the road where fields have been left charred by bombardment.
The base, surrounded by barbed wire and protected with heavy stone-filled berms, is not far from the town of Khiam, where dozens of houses have been destroyed or damaged, about five kilometers (three miles) from the border.
Over a wall that marks the frontier, the Israeli town of Metula is clearly visible. It has also been emptied of residents, as have other communities on both sides of the boundary.
From a watchtower, binoculars help the peacekeepers see further — into the Golan Heights annexed by Israel. The area has been a frequent target of Hezbollah fire.
Spanish Lt. Col. Jose Irisarri said their mission, under Security Council Resolution 1701, is to “control the area” and help the Lebanese government and armed forces establish control south of the Litani River, which is around 30 kilometers from the border with Israel.
The resolution ended a war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.
It called for all armed personnel to pull back north of the Litani, except for Lebanese state security forces and United Nations peacekeepers.
While Hezbollah has not had a visible military presence in the border area since then, the group still holds sway over large parts of the south.
When Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip attacked Israel on October 7, triggering war with Israel, Hezbollah opened what it calls a “support front” a day later, launching rockets and other fire from southern Lebanon against Israeli positions.
Israel has hit back with air strikes and artillery fire.
“Some of these villages are completely empty. There is no one living there because of the risk and the constant attacks they are suffering,” Irisarri said.
The Security Council first established UNIFIL in 1978 after Israel invaded south Lebanon. Its mission was expanded after the 2006 war.
Now, with fears of a wider regional war in which Lebanon would be on the front line, the UN’s Under Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix said UNIFIL’s role is “more important than ever.”
Spain’s contingent of 650 soldiers, based at several positions, are among around 10,000 troops from 49 countries in the mission.
“It’s the only liaison channel between the Israeli side and the Lebanese side in all its components, such as Hezbollah,” Lacroix told AFP in early August.
UNIFIL’s mandate expires at the end of August and Lebanon has asked for its renewal.
Cross-border violence since the Gaza war started has killed 601 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters but also including at least 131 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
The Israeli authorities have announced the deaths of at least 23 soldiers and 26 civilians since the fighting began, including in the annexed Golan Heights.
The Spaniards don’t just limit themselves to their core mission. They also give “support and some help” to the local population, Irisarri said.
As an example, he said their psychological team assists students with special needs.
AFP was unable to visit the school during its tour on Friday, after the Spanish contingent raised the security level following exchanges of fire in the area.
Israeli strikes in Lebanon’s south on Friday killed seven Hezbollah fighters and a local child, according to Hezbollah and Lebanon’s health ministry. Israel said its military aircraft had hit “terrorist” targets.
The peacekeepers have little time to rest, but have the company of two adopted dogs.
When they do have leisure time, “we go to the gym to keep fit and also we enjoy watching movies and talking to some friends,” said Gavalda.
He has been in Lebanon since May.
“We miss our families,” but Internet enables them to stay in touch almost daily, Gavalda said.
Surrounded by death, the soldiers have set up on their grounds a small statue of the Virgin Mary inside a protective glass case.
UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon crossfire
https://arab.news/nb2ey
UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon crossfire
- Several Blue Helmets have been wounded in the crossfire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movemen
- The Security Council first established UNIFIL in 1978 after Israel invaded south Lebanon
Dead on arrival: South Sudan’s devastated health system
- The UN says more than 5,100 civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced, and warns South Sudan is on the verge of “all-out civil war”
JUBA: South Sudan’s healthcare system has been so crippled by years of corruption that when a state governor experienced high blood pressure recently, he had to fly to Kenya for treatment.
Riek Gai Kok is the governor of Jonglei state, where conflict has once again exploded between government and opposition parties.
His trip to Nairobi was recounted by humanitarians as yet another example of how South Sudan’s elite, ranked the most corrupt in the world by Transparency International, have allowed services in the country to collapse.
HIGHLIGHT
While much of east Africa has seen improving health outcomes, South Sudan is going the other way despite receiving $1.4 billion in foreign aid in 2024.
As the country tips back into civil war between rival parties, what little health care exists is almost entirely through foreign donors, with more than 80 percent provided by NGOs like the International Committee of the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders.
In a hospital in the capital Juba, a soldier said he was amazed to have been airlifted to hospital since most wounded are
left to die.
“(When) I was shot, I thought I was dead,” said Ajuong Deng, 33, wounded in the leg.
But it was the ICRC that rescued him — not the army or the government — treating him at their facility within the Juba Military Hospital where the NGO gives staff what it euphemistically calls “incentives” because it is not officially allowed to pay them.
“If we don’t pay them then no one stays here,” said one worker, speaking anonymously.
Government pay, normally just $10-50 monthly, has not arrived for months. “This is not what we’re supposed to be doing,” said one senior humanitarian.
In the Juba hospital, wounded lay on the floor in blood-stained bandages. A man shot in the neck struggled to breathe.
The clinicians fear these men will soon be sucked back into the country’s multiple cycles of violence: the war between the government and opposition, currently raging to the north, or between various ethnic militias and cattle raiders that plague rural areas.
“I have actually had one patient who came back four times,” said Angeth Jervas Majok, the ICRC’s head physiotherapist. “On the fifth time, unfortunately
we lost him.”
With only 300 km of paved roads, many impassable during rainy seasons, wounds often grow infected before they reach a doctor, so amputations
are common.
Yet they are stigmatized: “There is a belief that (amputees) are not a human being anymore,” said Majok. “A lot of patients cannot go back home.”
The government will not say how many soldiers have died as fighting has ramped up in
the past year.
The UN says more than 5,100 civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced, and warns South Sudan is on the verge of “all-out civil war.” The last one in the 2010s killed 400,000 people.
While much of east Africa has seen improving health outcomes, South Sudan is going the other way despite receiving $1.4 billion in foreign aid in 2024, the largest amount globally as a share of GDP.
Life expectancy is 58, according to the World Bank, unimproved since independence in 2011. Maternal mortality is 1,223 per 100,000 births, compared to 197 globally. Unicef says one in 10 children do not reach their fifth birthday.
South Sudan’s oil revenues have exceeded $25 billion since 2011, yet only one percent of this year’s budget was allocated to health and the UN has said that “vast amounts never reach the sector, let alone the population” in a country where 92 percent live beneath the poverty line.
On top of all that, South Sudan is among the most dangerous places in the world to be a health worker. MSF facilities have been attacked 11 times in the past year. The ICRC surgical unit in Juba has blast doors, and stores biscuits and water next to medical equipment in case of a siege.
The US has warned it will pull funding if governance does not improve, and NGOs are pulling back as donations fall and patience runs thin with South Sudan’s leaders.
The ICRC told AFP it planned to “draw down progressively” in one facility, while attempting to reinforce local capacity.
Information Minister Ateny Wek Ateny admitted to AFP there were liquidity “difficulties” but said the government was working on it.
He rejected Transparency International’s latest report, saying: “I don’t know what criteria they have used to rank South Sudan as the most corrupt country in the world.”
