Belgium Plans to Cut Number of Peacekeepers in Lebanon
Belgium will extend the mandate of its peacekeeping contingent in Lebanon but plans to cut troop numbers by almost a third, the defense ministry said Tuesday.
The Belgian contingent will remain part of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) until at least August although it will be slashed to 216 troops from 335 currently, a spokesman said.
The cut is mainly due to the closure of a Belgian field hospital near Tibnin, southern Lebanon.
Most of the Belgian troops in the more than 12,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission are involved in demining. A Belgian was killed in September carrying out such duties.
South Lebanon is littered with unexploded munitions from the 2006 Israel-Hizbullah war, particularly bomblets from cluster munitions.
The U.N. estimates that around 40 percent of the one million cluster bomb submunitions dropped by Israel failed to explode.
U.N. deminers have now cleared 43 percent of the affected areas, but at least 30 Lebanese civilians have been killed by such ordnance left over from the war.