Asia

Asia

Cambodia to send peacekeepers to Central African Republic

13 October 2014 21:54 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Cambodia will send the first batch of 216 military personnel to join a United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic later this month, a senior military official said Monday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Some 20 leading forces of the group left Cambodia for the Central African Republic on Monday afternoon in order to prepare shelters for the whole group, who will fly there on Oct. 23, said Gen. Sem Sovanny, director-general of the Cambodian National Center for Peacekeeping Force. "The group will conduct humanitarian activities in the Central African Republic, including demining, constructing roads and bridges, producing drinking water and providing medical treatment to civilians," he said.

A civil war in the Central African Republic broke out in Dec. 2012 between mostly Muslim Seleka rebels and the government forces. Seleka rebels took power from then president Francois Bozize in March 2013 and the rebels' leader Michel Djotodia declared himself as president.

Thousands of people are believed to have been killed in the Central African Republic, and 2.2 million, about half the population, need humanitarian aid in the sectarian conflict.

Sporadic violence has continued to plague the Central African Republic despite Michel Djotodia 's resignation from the presidency in January and the formation of a transition government led by Catherine Samba-Panza.

Cambodia firstly dispatches peacekeepers abroad in 2006 under the U.N. umbrella. Currently, Cambodian peacekeepers have been implementing their humanitarian duties in South Sudan, Lebanon and Mali.