Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2015-11-17.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many UK troops will be deployed to the UN Mission in Sudan and South Sudan; what is the timeline for their deployment; and what will be the distribution of their roles and responsibilities.

Earl Howe

At the UN General Assembly in September, the Prime Minister offered increased UK military support to UN peacekeeping activity in Africa. This offer includes episodic deployment of up to three hundred personnel to conduct key tasks to support the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). Indicative tasks might include engineering, combat and advisory support. Planning is in hand now, in consultation with the UN, to determine the precise requirements and how we may best respond. We expect to deploy the first troops in mid-2016. We currently have three personnel deployed to UNMISS; two at the Force Headquarters in the capital, Juba, and one at Malakal, in the north of the country. UK has no plans to deploy troops to the UN (and African Union) Missions in Sudan.