They went there to do a good deed, but we’d like it very much if they came home soon.
“The United Nations (UN) revealed that an armed group detained 43 UN peacekeepers from Fiji and 81 peacekeepers from the Philippines got ‘trapped’ during fighting in Syria earlier this week,” reports Associated Press correspondent Cara Anna on Philstar.com.
In a statement from the office of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, it was revealed that the peacekeepers from Fiji “were detained on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights during a period of increased fighting between armed elements and the Syrian Arab Armed Forces.” The Filipino 81 peacekeepers, on the other hand, are “currently being restricted to their positions in the vicinity of Ar Ruwayhinah and Burayqah.”
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric explained, “We are dealing with non-state armed actors. The command and control of these groups is unclear. We’re not in a position to confirm who is holding whom. Some groups self-identified as being affiliated with al-Nusra, however, we are unable to confirm it.”
The report noted that the UN “is making every effort to secure the release of the detained peacekeepers.”
