Written question asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench) on Tuesday, 17 November 2015, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 1 December 2015. It was answered by Earl Howe (Conservative) on Tuesday, 24 November 2015 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

UN Mission in South Sudan

Question: 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.

Answer: 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.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: HL3581
Session: 2015-16
Subjects: Armed forces Deployment Peacekeeping operations Sudan South Sudan UN Mission in South Sudan
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.parliament.uk