2,250 members of Bangladesh’s armed forces are set to join to the UN peacekeeping missions in Africa. Of them, 850 personnel will go to South Sudan and the rest will be deployed in Mali.
The UN office ask to send an infantry battalion, a military hospital unit, a military cargo aircraft and military helicopter from the Bangladesh Army for the peacekeeping mission in South Sudan.
Different kinds of military equipment and stores for the Bangladeshi peacekeepers in Mali will be shipped by sea within January 2014. Bangladeshi peacekeepers in South Sudan have been very successful in their missions for the past seven years.
The situation in South Sudan has deteriorated in the past few days, with thousands civilian have been killed since the crisis began 10 days before. Also, 2 Indian peacekeepers were killed when about 2,000 rebels had ambushed their temporary base in Jonglei state in the world’s newest country.
South Sudan is the central African country, which became independent from Sudan less than three years ago, now stands on the brink of a full blown civil conflict. The country is a major producer of oil and the violence has caused production to fall by thousands of barrels per day. This is why the UN has moved to double its peacekeeping forces to 12,500 troops in a desperate bid to avert a civil war there.
On December 24, 2013 UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had requested Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to send another battalion of troops for its peacekeeping missions in South Sudan.
Members of Bangladeshi peacekeepers have always been highly praised in UN missions for their ideal duty. There are over 6,000 Bangladeshi peacekeepers in 8 UN missions. A total 112,776 peacekeepers from 116 countries are currently working in the UN’s 16 missions in 4 continents. The number of peacekeepers are increasing every year and Bangladeshis soldier working with UN peacekeeping mission with respect.