Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen announced on March 25th that he has approved a budget of USD15 million to purchase armoured vehicles for the country’s peacekeeping forces operating in Mali.
Speaking at a university graduation
ceremony in Phnom Penh, Hun Sen stressed that
this is required by the UN and that Cambodia must contribute to
peacekeeping operations as well as protect its forces.
Cambodia first sent its troops abroad in 2006. The
Southeast Asian nation has contributed a total of 5,785 soldiers to UN
peacekeeping missions in eight countries, namely Sudan,
South Sudan, Chad, the Central African Republic, Lebanon, Mali,
Syria, and Cyprus.
In Mali
alone, Cambodia
has sent 309 troops to join the UN peacekeeping mission since 2014.
In 2017, four Cambodian peacekeepers in
the Central African Republic
were killed by a rebel group during a convoy attack near Bangassou city.
Source: DCS
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