The United Nations Protection Force (French: Force de Protection des Nations Unies; UNPROFOR, also known by its French acronym FORPRONU), was the first United Nations peacekeeping force in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Yugoslav Wars. The force was formed in February 1992 and its mandate ended in March 1995, with the peacekeeping mission restructuring into three other forces (the United Nations Preventive Deployment Force (UNPREDEP) in Macedonia, and the United Nations Confidence Restoration Operation in Croatia (UNCRO) in Croatia, with restructured UNPROFOR operations ongoing in Bosnia and Herzegovina until their replacement by NATO and EU missions in December 1995).

Personnel

UNPROFOR was composed of nearly 39,000 personnel. It was composed of troops from Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, the Russian Federation, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the United States. According to the UN, there were 167 fatalities amongst UNPROFOR personnel during the course of the force's mandate. Of those who died, three were military observers, 159 were other military personnel, one was a member of the civilian police, two were international civilian staff and two were local staff.

The commanders of UNPROFOR were:

• Lieutenant-General Satish Nambiar (India), from March 1992 to March 1993
• Lieutenant-General Lars-Eric Wahlgren (Sweden), from March 1993 to June 1993
• General Jean Cot (France), from June 1993 to March 1994
• General Bertrand de Sauville de La Presle (France), from March 1994 to March 1995
• General Bernard Janvier (France), from March 1995 to January 1996

Prominent officers :

• Major-General Lewis MacKenzie (Canada) Sector Sarajevo 1992
• General Philippe Morillon (France) from October 1992 to July 1993
• Lieutenant-General Francis Briquemont (Belgium) 12 July 1993 to 24 January 1994
• Lieutenant-General Sir Michael Rose (United Kingdom) from 24 January 1994 to 25 February 1995
• Lieutenant-General Rupert Smith (United Kingdom) from 25 February 1995