Chinese peacekeepers leave for DR Congo

ANKARA (AA) - A mission of some 110 Chinese peacekeepers on Tuesday headed to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to start a one-year peacekeeping mission at the central African country, according to media reports.

The Chinese team is the first group of the 23rd Chinese peacekeepers batch with a total of some 218 members, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported.

Most of the members of the Chinese peacekeepers are tasked with "engineering support, repairing roads, constructing airports and barracks and destroying unexploded ammunition in mission areas," according to Xinhua.

The mission also includes a medical unit of 43 peacekeepers with the tasks of "treating the wounded, medical evacuation and epidemic prevention," according to the same source.

After the signing of the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement between the DRC and five regional states in July 1999, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) established the United Nations Organization Mission in the DRC known as MONUC, according to the UN.

The task of the MONUC at the time was to observe the ceasefire, the disengagement of rival forces and to preserve liaison with the parties of the ceasefire agreement.

Later on, based on a series of UNSC resolutions, MONUC's mandate was expanded to become "the supervision of the implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement and assigned multiple related additional tasks", the UN says on its official website.

China sent its first UN-affiliated peacekeepers to the DRC in 2003.

In May 2010, and in accordance with the UNSC resolution 1925, MONUC was renamed as of July 1 to become the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) reflecting a new phase in the country.