Bangladesh to send 1,600 peace keepers to Sudan

DHAKA, Mar 15, 2005 (Xinhua) — Bangladesh has almost finalized preparation for sending about 1,600 troops under the UN peace keeping mission to trouble torn Sudan and awaiting a final nod from the United Nations.

The New Age Tuesday quoted a senior official of the Bangladesh Army as saying that a six-member UN team arrived in Dhaka Monday for pre-deployment inspection.

Although Bangladesh is yet to decide how many peace keepers will be sent, “we expect it will be about 1,600, mostly from the army and some from the navy,” the official said.

The troops will be sent as soon as the UN Security Council takes a resolution in this regard and once approves, they will be sent in phases, the official said.

More than 8,000 peace keepers from the Bangladesh Armed Forces are now deployed in 11 countries. Nine Bangladeshi army men were killed in Democratic Republic of Congo in February in the worst ever attack by rebels.