Canadian peacekeeping forces, which once numbered in the thousands, have dwindled to dozens in recent years and the government has promised to re-engage in UN peace missions. A Canadian veteran soldier who served with the United Nations Peacekeeping force on war-divided Cyprus salutes a monument dedicated to the memory of fallen British and Canadian soldiers at a cemetery inside the UN-controlled buffer zone on the outskirts of the capital Nicosia on Tuesday, March 18, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Petros Karadjias
March 19, 2018 - 1:40 PM
OTTAWA - Canadian peacekeeping forces, which once numbered in the thousands, have dwindled to dozens in recent years, prompting the Liberal government to promise to re-engage in UN peace missions. On Monday, the government announced plans to send an aviation detachment of six helicopters to join a UN force in the west African country of Mali.
A by-the-numbers look at Canada and peacekeeping:
175,000: The number of Canadian troops who have been deployed on peacekeeping missions over the last 60 years.
More than 1,700: The number of Canadian deaths on peacekeeping missions.
25,000: The number of Canadian troops who served in Cyprus during almost 30 years of involvement there between 1964 and 1993.
59: The number of six-month rotations of Canadian troops through Cyprus in that period.
1: Canadian participation in Cyprus today.
3,285: The number of Canadian peacekeepers abroad at the end of 1992.
41: The number abroad at the end of last month.
6: Ranking of Canada among nations contributing to peace missions in 1995.
78: Ranking of Canada among nations contributing to peace missions as of last month.
500: The number of Canadian troops dispatched to the Sinai in 1956 in the first real UN peacekeeping deployment, the United Nations Emergency Force I.
1,007: Number of Canadians in UNEF in 1957.
40,000: Number of Canadian soldiers who fought in the Afghanistan war between 2001 and 2014.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2018