The latest UN Peacekeeping Fact Sheet, released recently, showed that there were 4,023 Nigerian troops on UN missions as of April 30, this year.
The report noted that Nigeria also contributed 534 police and 57 UN military experts.
Despite complaints of shortage of troops to fight Boko Haram, Nigeria’s contribution of troops to UN mission exceeded the contributions of the United States, China, France, United Kingdom, Germany and Russia combined.
The fact sheet on the UN website showed that there were 30 US troops, 1,975 Chinese, and 889 French in peacekeeping mission as of April 30.
In the same month, Germany contributed 234 troops, UK contributed 289, while Russia sent only four troops.
The countries that contributed more troops than Nigeria are Pakistan, which contributed 7,359; Bangladesh, 6,223; India, 7,083; Ethiopia, 6,494; and Rwanda, 4,244.
A total of 97,729 personnel, made up of 83,936 troops, 11,929 police, and 1,864 UN military experts, participated in the peacekeeping missions globally in April.
This was slightly lower than the 97,811 personnel, comprising 83,841 troops, 12, 099 police, and 1,871 UN military experts, that participated in March.
Nigeria’s contribution in March was 4,123 troops, 544 policemen, and 52 UN military experts.
It was reported recently that the Federal Government had given the armed forces and other security agencies approval to embark on mass recruitment to increase military might in the war against Boko Haram insurgency.
President Goodluck Jonathan was said to have issued the directive for mass recruitment into the army in March after the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen Kenneth Minimah, briefed him about the operations of the army. The recruitment was scheduled to start this month.
The Nigerian Army strength, estimated at 150,000 troops have been stretched by its involvement in internal security operations across the country.
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