United Nations, United States

Friday, October 10, 2025

By Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS

Under pressure from US budget cuts, the UN will reduce the number of its peacekeepers worldwide by 25% in the coming months, a decision that will have a “significant” impact, particularly on civilians in the field, a senior official announced on Wednesday.

“We will have to repatriate and reduce the number of our military and police peacekeeping personnel by about 25%, as well as their equipment, and a significant number of civilian mission employees will also be affected,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

This means the departure of 13,000 to 14,000 soldiers and police officers, he said. Given the necessary coordination with troop-contributing countries, repatriation could begin “within six weeks” and take “12 to 18 weeks.”

The budget for peacekeeping operations for the period July 2025-June 2026 is approximately $5.4 billion, of which $1.3 billion is to come from the United States and $1.2 billion from China.

But since the new administration took office, Washington has announced massive cuts in its foreign aid, including drastic reductions in funding for humanitarian programs and specialized United Nations agencies.

Until now, the UN had been waiting for decisions regarding peacekeeping operations, which already had a total of $2 billion in arrears in contributions as of July.

The Americans have now informed the UN that they will contribute only $682 million to the 2025-2026 budget, including $85 million earmarked for the future UN support office for the new international anti-gang mission in Haiti, according to the UN official.

Of the total, the UN expects a shortfall of 16 to 17% in the current peacekeeping budget.

Pending the US decision, UN peacekeeping missions had prepared plans to anticipate various scenarios of funding cuts, including a total US withdrawal.

– “Very bad signal” –

But while the worst-case scenario has been avoided, “we have no choice but to implement the plans to prevent a financial collapse of operations, and we deeply regret having to do so,” the UN official insisted.

The 25% reduction in troops will apply to nine of the eleven peacekeeping missions. The other two, which have few personnel, are funded by a different budget.

In addition to repatriating peacekeepers and equipment, the UN will have to organize, where necessary, the environmental restoration of abandoned sites or the transfer of control of bases of operations to local authorities.

“We know there will be consequences in terms of monitoring ceasefires, protecting civilians, and working with humanitarian agencies,” the official noted, predicting a “significant” impact without being able to assess it in more detail.

The missions concerned are those deployed in particular in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, southern Lebanon, the Central African Republic, South Sudan and Western Sahara.

This announcement “potentially means a reduction in the protection of humanitarian convoys or civilians who depend on aid,” said Louis Charbonneau of Human Rights Watch, hoping that the UN would give “priority to vital humanitarian activities and human rights.”

“The impact on the ground will depend. In Cyprus (…), a reduction in staff will be annoying but will not make a big difference,” said Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group.

“But in places like South Sudan, where peacekeepers offer some protection to many civilians and where a new war almost broke out this year, reducing the number of peacekeepers sends a very bad signal,” he said.

And “it makes a mockery of the Security Council, which sets the levels of personnel deployment for UN missions.”

Humaniterre with AFP