Bangladesh to send peacekeepers to Sudan

DHAKA, Feb 20 (Reuters) – Bangladesh will send peacekeeping troops to Sudan following an appeal by the United Nations, Foreign Minister M. Morshed Khan said on Sunday.

The U.N. wants to deploy 10,000 troops to the African country to monitor a peace agreement signed in January 2005 between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement.

Bangladesh, one of the leading contributor of peacekeepers, currently has 7,942 troops with U.N. missions across the world, officials said.

They said about 1,600 Bangladeshi soldiers were expected to move be deployed to Sudan and a Bangladeshi officer will command the U.N. peacekeepers.

An estimated 70,000 people have died in the last two years in Sudan – mostly in Darfur – with another 1.65 million displaced internally.

“Bangladesh is always ready to send troops anywhere in the world under the U.N. mandate,” foreign minister Khan said.