Indian soldiers in Haiti facing UN probe over anti-cholera vaccination claims

The United Nations is probing Indian peacekeepers in Haiti for arriving in the country without mandatory cholera vaccination. The UN has also officially sought a clarification from the Indian government to confirm whether the troops had cholera vaccination when they arrived in July-August 2016.

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Indian troops not having the vaccination is a matter of shame for the UN especially since it was blamed for causing a cholera outbreak in 2010 when UN peacekeepers arrived there from Nepal. The cholera strain has caused 10,000 deaths in last six years, and former UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon had apologised for the outbreak in December 2016. The UN until then has denied having a role in the cholera outbreak.

The outbreak was caused by Nepalese UN peacekeepers who had performed their daily ablutions in a river next to the base they were stationed at. 

More than 100 Assam Rifles soldiers, the oldest contingent in the country, had reached Haiti in July-August 2016 and are now being locally administered anti-cholera vaccine. 

UN had made anti-cholera vaccination mandatory in 2015 after facing massive criticism over the cholera outbreak in the impoverished Caribbean country. Before Ban apologised for UN causing the outbreak, the international body denied its role for years. 

An Assam Rifles spokesperson told Times of India that the troops were part of the UN-formed Police Unit, responsible for doing guard duty in Haiti, but he did not answer about the troops' false claim of getting vaccinated when they had not.