More RCAF soldiers to leave for Africa: PM

Thursday, 21 January 2010 15:01 Sam Rith

Photo by: Tracey Shelton

A Royal Cambodian Armed Forces soldier returns from a mission to Sudan last year.

PRIME Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday announced that Cambodia would send a deployment of Royal Cambodian Armed Forces engineers to Chad and the Central African Republic to supplement a contingent of peacekeepers who departed for the two countries in November.
The announcement came during the premier’s remarks at the opening of the sixth Asia-Economic Forum in the capital.
Sem Sovanny, the director general of the government’s Institute for Peacekeeping Forces, Mines and ERW (explosive remnants of war) Clearance, told the Post on Wednesday that Cambodia is planning to send more than 100 soldiers on the mission, including 10 deminers. Both groups would participate in the construction of roads and bridges, he said.
“We still need to negotiate the memorandum of understanding with the United Nations,” he said, adding that officials from the institute will travel to Africa next week on a scouting mission.
The UN is scheduled to observe the Cambodian forces in March.
Last November, 42 Cambodian peacekeeping soldiers travelled to Chad and the Central African Republic to assist in the relocation of UN personnel and logistics assets, among other projects.