UN study finds peacekeepers avoid using force to protect civilians

U.N. peacekeepers stand guard during a visit by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to an IDP (internally displaced persons) camp in the United Nations Mission In South Sudan (UNMISS) base in Juba May 6, 2014. REUTERS/Andreea Campeanu

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - United Nations peacekeeping missions routinely avoid using force to protect civilians who are under attack, intervening in only 20 percent of cases despite being authorized to do so by the U.N. Security Council, an internal U.N. study found.

"There is a persistent pattern of peacekeeping operations not intervening with force when civilians are under attack," the report by the Office of Internal Oversight Services said.