Part of our duty of care: mission visits to EU missions in Georgia and Somalia

In the last weeks, two mission visits of ZIF took place. ZIF’s security team flew to Somalia to get an on-site picture of the working environment of the staff of the European Union Capacity Building Mission in Somalia. Just some days later, a ZIF representative traveled to Georgia together with colleagues from the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community. There, they met the German contingent of the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM) consisting of altogether 26 civilian ZIF secondees and federal police officers. Germany is contributing therewith the largest contingent to the mission. They traveled to the field offices of Mtskheta and Gori and accompanied mission staff on patrol. Near Gori runs the Administrative Boundary Line (ABL), which is a de facto "border demarcation" between Georgia and South Ossetia.

Regular mission visits are an important part of our duty of care. This allows us to sharpen our assessments of mission security, as well as discuss challenges or concerns with our secondees in person and in the field.

Currently, six ZIF secondees are working in EUMM Georgia, both at headquarters and in field offices. Together with the seconded police officers, they represent one of the largest personnel shares of the mission for Germany. ZIF is currently seconding five people to EUCAP Somalia.