Name Bansi Ponnappa | ||
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Service/branch Indian Army, United Nations | ||
Brigadier C. B. Bansi Ponnappa is an Indian military officer and UN peacekeeper. He is known for his role as commander of the United Nations' MONUSCO forces in the North Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the M23 rebellion.
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Indian Army
Ponnappa is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy. He was previously Commander of Shakti Vijay Brigade in Jammu and Kashmir in 2012. As a representative of the Indian army he had flagged off an educational cum motivational tour under Operation Sadhbhavana in Tangdar area of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district.
UN Peacekeeping
Later in 2012 he was sent to Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as part of India's UN Peacekeeping force. He was made MONUSCO's North Kivu Brigade (NKB) Commander and addressed as 'Brigadier General'. During the M23 rebellion in North Kivu the UN Peacekeepers secured the airport and maintained status quo while the security responsibilities of Goma was shared between the police deployment, the formed police of MONUSCO and the MONUSCO military.
Ponnappa served under Brazilian Lt. General Carlos Alberto dos Santos Cruz who succeeded India's Chander Prakash as Force Commander of MONUSCO in March 2013. Under his command, North Kivu Brigade were blamed for not stopping the M23 rebel group from marching into Goma. In fact, M23 passed right beside Munigi Hill which was occupied by NKB.
In 2013, the Indian Army planned and implemented a water treatment plant at Otobora, a Congolese village in Walikale, D R Congo, with MONUSCO's approval. The facility was inaugurated by Brigadier General C B Ponnappa on 4 October 2014.