Over the course of several weeks, UNIFIL’s multinational units in the mission’s eastern sector participated in various coordinated activities and exercises with the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) personnel with the aim of mutually enhancing and honing their skills.

In the first of such activities in early November, the training branch of UNIFIL Sector East and Spanish peacekeepers organized a COVID-19 disinfection training for LAF soldiers. The three-day training encompassed theoretical and practical sessions on following right protocols while performing operational activities during COVID-19 pandemic. 

Peacekeepers from five UNIFIL troop-contributing countries – India, Indonesia, Nepal, Serbia and Spain – joined LAF personnel in this training.

Late in November, Indian peacekeepers delivered a 4-day marksmanship training with LAF soldiers and fellow UN peacekeepers from the five countries. While exchanging experience in combat tactics, their participation demonstrated standard movements and necessary techniques required for appropriate marksmanship.

The last of such coordinated activities included a first aid and trauma casualty training, from 29 November to 3 December, hosted and delivered by Nepalese peacekeepers.

Commenting on the training and other joint activities with the LAF, UNIFIL Sector East Commander Brigadier General Ramón Armada Vázquez said: “I am personally very proud to see operational readiness in all fronts with performance and levels of newly acquired knowledge of troops of Sector East.”

Training the LAF constitutes an important element of UNIFIL’s mandate. Sector East alone conducts 30 such activities with the LAF in a year.

According to the latest report of Secretary-General António Guterres on the implementation of Security Council resolution 1701, which forms the core of UNIFIL’s mandate, the UN mission’s peacekeepers from 46 countries conduct a monthly average of 160 trainings for the LAF’s land forces.