Army medics from Gosport join UN mission in South Sudan
August 20, 2017 (JUBA) – 50 soldiers and medics from 33 Field Hospital in Gosport made their final preparations to deploy in war-ravaged South Sudan.
33 Field Hospital is reportedly deploying in support of Operation TRENTON, the British military’s response to the government’s commitment to its United Nations’ obligations.
“We’ve had quite a long and extensive pre-deployment training package, it seemed to go on forever,” Maj. Jon Lord told The News.
“33 Field Hospital last deployed in 2013 on Op Herrick and… we’re due to be rationalised next year as part of the wider defence medical service future plans,” he added.
The medic will reportedly be operating under the mandate of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and that it will also be their responsibility to take over the running of temporary tented field hospital and to pave the way for a permanent facility capable of serving and caring for up to 1800 multi-national peacekeepers.
In May this year, UNMISS said about 400 British troops arrived in war-torn South Sudan to serve as peacekeepers. The United Kingdom contingents, according to the UN, would provide a military engineering taskforce to the Malakal and Bentiu Protection of Civilians sites (POCs), as well as a Level II Hospital in Bentiu.
With almost 400 troops in total, the deployment in the East African country was considered to be Britain’s largest operational deployment across the whole world.
UNMISS replaced the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) whose mandate expired after South Sudan’s independence in July 2011 when six year interim period of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) ended. The mandate of UNMISS is the help South Sudan, the newest country in the world consolidating peace and security and help create an environment for development to take place.
On 27 May 2014, the Security Council, by unanimously adopting its resolution 2155 (2014) reprioritized the mandate of UNMISS towards the protection of civilians, human rights monitoring and support for the delivery of humanitarian assistance, and increased the Mission’s troop strength to 12,500 and a police component to up to 1,323 personnel, as requested in the Secretary-General’s 6 March report.
(ST)