Addis Ababa, July 14, 2022(Walta) – Ministry of Defense Force announced that currently, Ethiopia has been contributing to UN peacekeeping operations by contributing 8,297 troops, police, and military experts to the UN peacekeeping missions.
This was noted during a youth seminar that was organized yesterday by the East Africa Standby Force (EASF) in collaboration with the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Defense Force under the theme “Protect the Environment: and Promote Peace”.
Speaking at the seminar, Ministry of Defense Force State Minister Martha Leweige said that in its contribution Ethiopia holds the position of the second top contributor supplying around 8 percent of the UN peacekeeping force. Moreover, it is currently a leading contributor of female peacekeepers to UN missions.
She stressed that despite the challenges that the country is facing the government of the country is committed to ensuring sustainable peace and stability in the country and in the continent at the large in collaboration with different regional and continental organizations.
She underscored that Ethiopia had committed to global peace and stability for a long time adding that starting from, the early day of UN peacekeeping to some of today’s most vital operations Ethiopian men and women have played an important role in the organization’s efforts to advance peace in the world’s hot spots adding that the participation of the country dates back to 1951 in the Korean war.
Ministry of Women and Social Affairs Minister Ergogie Tesfaye (Ph.D.) on her part said that Almost 75 percent of Africa’s population is under the age of 35, making Africa the world’s youngest continent.
Furthermore, in Ethiopia, out of the total population, 71 percent of the population is under the age of 35. Having a massive number of young people offers us an opportunity to accelerate sustainable development and achieves global peace and security.
She stressed that Youth voluntary services are now being conducted in Ethiopia throughout the year and quite a large pool of youth is being deployed adding that in 2020/2021, a total of over 21 million youth had participated and they have provided services worth the value of more than 10 billion birr, according to EPA.
The Green legacy initiative launched in June 2019, aims to curb the effects of climate change and deforestation in Ethiopia has been successfully achieved by mass participation of youths adding that over 18 billion seedlings have already been planted across the country in the past three years, it was learned.