The United Nations Mission to Support the Hudaydah Agreement (UNMHA) in Yemen announced that its new head of mission, Irish Major General Michael Perry, officially took over his duties today, succeeding Indian General Abhijit Guha.
Berry will also assume the task of chairing the Redeployment Coordination Committee (RCC), in light of accusations of the UN mission formed to monitor the ceasefire in Hodeidah, under the Stockholm Agreement signed at the end of 2018 between the government and the Houthis, of failing to stop Iran’s aggression and its militias and implement the agreement.
Since that time, the mission has failed to achieve any breakthrough or success to support the implementation of the agreement, which included a ceasefire in Hodeidah, and to supervise the redeployment of forces in the cities and ports of Hodeidah, Salif and Ras Issa, in light of the Houthi militia’s continued refusal to implement the terms of the agreement, according to the legitimate government’s accusations.
The Houthi militia continued its direct violations of the ceasefire, and continued to lay mines and bombard civilians, and refused to withdraw from the city and its ports.
According to the United Nations, Major General Beary has enjoyed a long career since joining the Irish Army as an infantry officer in 1975. He also served from 2016 to 2018 as Head of Mission and Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
Perry also spent 10 years in deployments abroad, including in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia and Uganda.
From 2011 to 2013, Beary led the European Union’s military training mission in Somalia. In 2004, he was the commander of the liaison team with the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.
Previously, he was Director of Training for the Irish Defense Forces and Commander of the Military College. Since retiring from the Irish Army in 2018, General Perry has lectured at Irish universities and authored publications on international peacekeeping. He has also led United Nations boards of inquiry in Africa.
Major General Perry holds an MA in Business Studies and an MA in National Security Strategy. He is a graduate of the Irish Defense Forces Command and Staff School, University College Galway, University of Dublin’s Smurfit School of Business, and the National War College of the National Defense University in Washington.
The succession of four names to the presidency of the Redeployment Committee is an indication of the lack of significant progress in the work of the committee, since the era of General Patrick Cammaert, passing through the Danish General Michael Lollesgaard and the Indian General Abhajit Guha, who barely succeeded in establishing five ceasefire observation points.
