Bansi Ponnappa

C B (Bansi) Ponnappa
NKB commander, Brigadier General C B Ponnappa on Munigi hill, the 22nd of August 2013. © MONUSCO
Allegiance	India,  UN
Service/branch	Indian Army, United Nations
Rank	Brigadier
Commands held	North Kivu Brigade (NKB) of MONUSCO
Battles/wars	M23 rebellion

C B Bansi Ponnappa is an Indian military officer and UN peacekeeper.

Indian Army

Brigadier C B Ponnappa 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.^[1]

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.^[2][3]

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.^[4] 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.^[5]

Gallery

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bansi Ponnappa.

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  MONUSCO NKB commander, Brigadier General C B Ponnappa, briefs members of UN Security Council as they visit the front line in Kibati near Goma from where the M23 rebels have been recently defeated, the 6th of October 2013. © MONUSCO

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  NKB commander, Brigadier General C B Ponnappa and FC Gen. Santos Cruz in the trenches of Munigi hill, the 22nd of August 2013. © MONUSCO

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  FC Gen. Santos Cruz, NKB commander, Brigadier General C B Ponnappa and FIB commander James Mwakibolwa in the trenches of Munigi hill, the 22nd of August 2013 © MONUSCO

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  MONUSCO NKB commander, Brigadier General C B Ponnappa, briefs members of UN Security Council as they visit the front line in Kibati near Goma from where the M23 rebels have been recently defeated, the 6th of October 2013. © MONUSCO

References