\\\'No fresh Bangladesh peace-keepers for South Sudan\\\'

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon’s special representative Ameerah Haq has said that an additional 4,000 peace-keeping troops will be deployed in South Sudan this year. However, she said that none of them will be from Bangladesh. She said that these additional contingents will be hired from three African countries – Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia. At the moment, there are 7,000 peace keepers in South Sudan and the plan is to raise their strength to 11,000 in coming months, she informed. UN Secretary General’s special envoy mentioned that 7000 UN peace-keeping troops are already deployed in South Sudan – many of them from Bangladesh. In fact, the first contingents of peace-keepers in South Sudan were Bangladesh troops deployed out of Congo during the first crisis in the region. ‘But at the moment there is no plan to induct fresh contingents from Bangladesh (in south Sudan),’ Haq, of Bangladesh origin, informed. UN peace-keeping assignments involve great risks and the troops deployed need to particularly sensitive when handling non-combatants, especially women and children, she said. ‘Young soldiers are preferred for these assignments because they can contribute more for restoring which is our main objective in South Sudan,’ the special envoy added, while talking to Hello bdnews24.com at the UN headquarters in New York on Thursday afternoon (New York time).