By Ma Yichong and Li Hui
KHARTOUM, May 24 -- A total of 225 members of the 16th Chinese Peacekeeping Engineer Contingent to Darfur, Sudan, were awarded the UN peace medals and commendations by the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) on May 20, 2021.
The honor conferring ceremony was held in the Chinese camp of the UNAMID Super Camp in El Fasher, North Darfur. Commander Xiao Wei read out to all peacekeepers a congratulatory message sent by acting force commander Major General Henry on behalf of the UNAMID, in which he hailed that: “I am very grateful to the Chinese peacekeeping engineer contingent to Darfur for its outstanding dedication to the UNAMID and the people of Darfur. You have made great contributions to the realization of peace and stability here, and successfully completed all the tasks assigned by the UNAMID with outstanding professional skills and high efficiency. I’d like to take this opportunity to express my sincere respect to you all on behalf of the UNAMID.”
As the only engineering support force of the UNAMID, the Chinese peacekeeping engineer contingent has been constantly facing security threats in field construction. However, they have overcome difficulties and completed various UN-assigned tasks with high standards.
It is understood that since China sent the first engineer contingent to Darfur, Sudan in 2007, there have been 15 rotations as of now, which has been mainly responsible for road repairing, site leveling, airport maintenance, fortification construction, and environmental cleanup in the various commands under the UNAMID regiment.
According to the decision made by the UN Security Council, the UNAMID completed its mandate on 31 December 2020, with existing peacekeepers withdrawing in batches within 6 months. This marks the end of the 14-year peacekeeping operations of the Chinese peacekeeping engineer contingents to Darfur in Sudan. In other words, the 16th Chinese Peacekeeping Engineer Contingent will gradually evacuate Darfur.
