KHARTOUM, April 17 (Xinhua) -- China's first peacekeeping helicopter detachment to Sudan (Darfur) successfully completed air transportation of the Pakistani peacekeeping engineers in an troop rotation operation on April 15.
These Pakistani engineers were deployed at three mission points under the African Union/United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID). A Chinese peacekeeping helicopter arrived at a mission point located in Sortony in Sector North of the UNAMID at 13:00 on Monday afternoon to pick up the last batch of peacekeeping engineers from Pakistan in this troop rotation action.
One hour later, the helicopter landed safely at an airport in EL Fasher, capital city of Sudan's North Darfur State. The Pakistani peacekeeping engineers thanked the aircrew and said it was the first time that they took the peacekeeping helicopter of China, Pakistan's good friend and neighbor, Chinese peacekeepers were very friendly and had excellent flight skills.
The detachment consists of one flight company, one maintenance company and one logistics support company with 140 peacekeepers and 4 Mi-171 medium multi-purpose helicopters. It is mainly responsible for air patrols, battlefield reconnaissance, transportation of peacekeeping troops and logistics supplies, transfer of the wounded as well as other support tasks.