Today, more than 50 missions are all in full crisis management mode and are adapting to a radical new situation while ensuring the safety of approximately 160,000 civilian, police, and military peacekeepers. Most of the countries where these missions are deployed have closed their borders and have imposed social distancing measures. Countries like South Sudan have asked the United Nations not to rotate new troops into their countries, especially from countries that are seen as high risk like China, Italy, South Korea, and Spain.
In response to the pandemic, peace operations across the world are assessing which functions and operational activities are critical and need to continue as normal or be adapted, which are important but not critical, and which can be paused until the crisis is over. Essential functions across missions include patrols and activities related to protection of civilians, convoy escorts and other forms of support to humanitarian assistance, force protection, protecting key infrastructure, and support to host state institutions and local authorities. Some missions have suspended their quick-impact project plans and are now reallocating these funds to support the efforts of local and national institutions to contain the spread of COVID-19. Limiting operations to the essentials will help to prevent and contain the virus, but in the medium to long term the ability of missions to achieve their mandated benchmarks and objectives will be impacted.