By Guo Chen and Liu Huibin
BEIJING, Sept. 18 (ChinaMil) -- The first echelon of the 10th Chinese peacekeeping force to South Sudan (Wau) consisting of 130 engineers and 33 medical personnel set off for a one-year peacekeeping mission from Nanyuan Airport in Beijing on Tuesday.
The troop consists of an engineer contingent and a medical contingent with a total of 331 peacekeepers. Members of the engineer contingent are mainly attached to a combined brigade with the 81st Group Army of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), while members of the medical contingent are mainly attached to the No.980 Hospital under the Joint Logistic Support Force of the Central Military Commission (CMC).
The engineer contingent will be tasked with maintenance and upgrade of the supply line, reparation of airport runway, construction of personnel safety shelter and engineering support for peacekeeping camps in the mission area. The tasks of the medical team are to provide basic health care, disease treatment, epidemic prevention and surgeries in the mission area.
Song Yanyong, commanding officer of the engineer contingent, said that they have paid close attention to the security situation in South Sudan and the characteristics of the mission, and carried out intensive training on five aspects including peacekeeping policies, international regulations, basic skills, physical exercises and emergency response, and have greatly improved the professionalism and emergency response capability in implementing peacekeeping missions.
According to the plan, the second echelon of Chinese peacekeepers will depart from Beijing on September 25, 2019.