China to Deploy Troops to Protect South Sudan Oil Facilities
This article is for subscribers only.
China will send 700 soldiers to protect civilians working at oil facilities in South Sudan, where civil war has raged for almost nine months, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mawien Makol Arik said.
Troops will be deployed by November and help protect “vital installations,” reinforcing United Nations peacekeepers already in the country, Arik said by phone today from South Sudan’s capital, Juba. The UN mission’s acting spokesman, Joseph Contreras, said the Chinese forces are part of a troop increase authorized by the UN Security Council in December. No decision has been made about where they will deploy, he said.