Indian troops leave to Sudan for UN peacekeeping mission

Sept 30, 2005 (NEW DELHI) — Indian Air Force troops leaved on Friday to Sudan; weeks after the United Nations Security Council extended the mandate for its mission for a further six months.

According to the Indian Asian News International (ANI), M. Bahadur, will lead the 10,000-strong Indian contingent. It carrying with it key medical equipment and choppers, because the Indian forces will largely be involved in logistic support.

“The contingent that is going there comes under chapter 7, which means peace enforcement as against peace keeping which is chapter six. Their role will be logistic support, troop induction, casualty evacuation, search and rescue and basic medical support,” Bahadur said at an Air Force Base in New Delhi.

The UN Security Council had established United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) in March 2005 to support the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, signed by the Sudanese government and the former rebels of the southern Sudan People’s Liberation movement/Army in January 2005 in Nairobi.

The agreement ended a civil war between northern and southern Sudan that had lasted 21 years.

UNMIS’ mandate also includes monitoring and verifying the ceasefire agreement, helping to set up the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programme for ex-combatants, as well as promoting national reconciliation and human rights.

India, which has the fourth largest army in the world, has participated in many UN peacekeeping operations, including the Balkans and Middle East.

Over 62,000 Indian troops have participated in 36 peacekeeping operations worldwide.

India has a strong economic presence in Sudan.

The Indian oil firm Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has a 25 percent stake in the Greater Nile Oil Project in Sudan and has interests in two exploration blocks.

In February this year, ONGC was awarded a contract to build a 1.2-billion-dollar oil refinery in Sudan, an African country bordering the Red Sea.

Sudan has also mandated ONGC to build a 200-million-dollar multi-product export pipeline from the Khartoum refinery to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, about 740 kilometres (460 miles) away.