Vietnamese peacekeeping force leave on duty at UNISFA

Speaking at the ceremony, President Nguyen Xuan Phuc applauded the nation’s contributions to UN peacekeeping operations over the past years, noting that positive results from the Vietnam People's Army Force’s participation in the UN mission were greatly supported by a large number of people in the country and highly appreciated by the international community and the UN as well.

This represents the first time that the country has dispatched a large force to participate in UN peacekeeping operations since joining in June, 2014.

Since June, 2014, the nation has deployed three level-2 field hospitals to South Sudan. The first two fulfilled their tasks and have already returned home, while the third departed for the East African country on March 23.

After eight years, Vietnam has since sent a total of 76 officers to perform UN missions in South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and UNISFA alongside 189 medical officers and staff from the level-2 field hospital as part of the mission.

This time, the participating force consists of the 184-member Military Engineering Unit which has been preparing for more than five years and boasts many highly-qualified personnel. Most of them include engineers, machine experts, and high-level construction workers selected from 21 units

The destination for officers and soldiers will be the UNISFA mission in Abyei between Sudan and South Sudan.

Abyei is an area covering more than 10,000 square kilometres and located in the border area between Sudan and South Sudan. Abyei was granted "special administrative status" by the 2004 Protocol on the settlement of conflicts in the Sudanese civil war.

Apart from the Military Engineering Unit No1, the nation will continue to send officers from the Level 2 Field Hospital No. 4 to the South Sudan mission, with 63 servicemen, including 10 female soldiers.

Maj. Gen. Hoang Kim Phung, director of the Vietnam Department of Peacekeeping Operations under the Ministry of Defence, said, “For the time being, the Military Engineering Unit is ready for their mission along with equipment, prepared weapons and capabilities that the UN front-line team has tested.”

The UN rates the nation’s engineering unit as the most typical of the 15 engineering teams deployed at UNISFA and selected by the end of October, 2021.

The tasks of the engineering unit proposed by the UN include two main roles, with the first being to carry out construction projects such as airports, ports, drainage works, camps, and well drilling activities serving refugees in border areas. The second task is to build high-rise buildings, Maj. Gen. Phung went on to say.

After eight years of participating in UN peacekeeping mission, the image of Vietnamese soldiers has left many good impressions in the eyes of friends around the world.

UN leaders have repeatedly sent letters of commendation and thanks to the Vietnamese Government for the positive contributions of local soldiers to UN peacekeeping missions.