FILE PHOTO: Ambassador Jennifer Locetta, Alternative Representative for Special Political Affairs at United Nations in New York - Courtesy

U.S. Diplomat Jennifer Locetta told the UN Security Council today that peacekeeping missions need to “adapt or close,” calling for an end to open-ended missions that lack political progress. 

According to a statement shared with the Eye Radio newsroom on Thursday, April 16, Alternative Representative for Special Political Affairs at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, Ambassador Locetta delivered a sharp critique of the current state of UN Peacekeeping Operations.

Speaking in New York, the American diplomat warned that the U.S. will no longer support “open-ended” missions that waste billions of dollars while host governments fail to make peace.

She specifically called out the governments of Sudan and South Sudan, stating that the future of the UNISFA mission in Abyei depends on them showing real progress toward peace.

She reminded the Council that these operations are meant to be a temporary tool to help host governments navigate crises when they cannot help themselves.

Ambassador Locetta specifically cited the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) as an example of this systemic drift.

She described it as a “supposedly ‘interim’ force which has consumed billions of dollars over its 15 years in place—with little to show for in lasting political progress.”

The Ambassador noted that during UNISFA’s tenure, the governments of Sudan and South Sudan have made “virtually no progress toward delineating the border… the demilitarization of Abyei, or deciding the area’s final status.”

She further accused both governments of undermining mission effectiveness through “deliberate acts of obstruction disguised as bureaucratic delays,” including the denial of visas and blocking the appointment of mission leadership.

In her address, Locetta warned that “Sudan and South Sudan must unequivocally demonstrate progress on these benchmarks… if they want to see this mission renewed another year.”

She argued that peacekeepers should always be “working themselves out of a job,” and that host government consent should not become a “shield for inaction and de facto renewal.”

Ambassador Locetta concluded by calling for innovative adaptation that advances progress toward transition and peace. “We simply cannot continue to call for ‘adaptive peacekeeping’ while opting for the status quo out of sheer habit,” she stated. “If we are serious about peacekeeping and reform, renewal must be earned—never assumed.”