The Security Council on Saturday, April 21, voted unanimously (as expected now that Russia’s on board) to send up to 300 unarmed military observers to Syria to monitor the ceasefire announced on April 12, a ceasefire that that has been widely violated by Syrian forces, according to Kofi Annan’s briefing to the council on April 24.

To date, there are 11 observers on the ground, UN peacekeeping chief Henri Ladsous told the council, and it will take up to one month for the first 100 monitors to deploy. The observers currently on the ground are from Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Finland, Morocco, Norway, Russia, Sweden and Switzerland, according to UN reporter Daniel Hernandez.

The Irish government announced on Tuesday that it had approved the deployment of six members of its defence forces to join the UN mission in Syria.