Hervé Ladsous, the head of United Nations peacekeeping operations said in a statement to reporters  that ninety United Nations peacekeepers were killed in the line of duty in 2013.

In his end-of-year briefing to the press on Friday, Mr. Ladsous said this has been "a very active year."

He told reporters that the United Nations is continuing to improve on the quality of peacekeeping operations with training and the introduction of new technologies such as unmanned aerial vehicles.

"Let me just express our sorrow of course, at the fact that we have had, over the past year 90 of our colleagues who died, 29 of them through deliberate attacks against them. This is really a shame and we are terribly sorrow for their loved ones but this is also a reality. So more than ever safety and security of our personnel remain a major concern and something on which we keep working at all times and actively upon" , Ladsous said and stated  that the United Nations is downsizing its operations in Haiti, Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia and Darfur to some extent, as expected by Member States.