The Indian government on Friday deployed army’s largest contingent of all-women peacekeepers in Sudan’s Abyei region, which is located on the border of Sudan and South Sudan, as a part of a UN peace-keeping mission, reported The Indian Express.
The troop of 27 women is India’s largest single unit of women peacekeepers deployed as part of a UN Mission after 2007 when the first-ever all Indian women’s police contingent of 103 officers was sent to Liberia.
In a statement, the Permanent Mission of India to the UN said the Indian contingent, consisting of two officers and 25 other ranks, will form part of an engagement platoon and perform community outreach and extensive security-related tasks.
“Proud to see this. India has a tradition of active participation in UN peacekeeping missions. The participation by our Nari Shakti is even more gladdening,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted.
The contingent will provide relief and assistance to women and children in one of the highly operational and challenging terrain conditions under the UN flag. It will remain deployed in Abyei for a period of six months.
The UN Security Council established the UNISFA to respond to the urgent situation in Sudan’s Abyei region, which was marred by violence, escalating tensions and population displacement.
As of 2020, women constitute 4.8 per cent of military contingents and 10.9 per cent of formed police units and 34 per cent of justice and corrections government-provided personnel out of approximately 95,000 peacekeepers in UN Peacekeeping missions.
By 2028, the UN targets to deploy 15 per cent of women in military contingents, 25 per cent as military observers and staff officers, 20 per cent in police units, and 30 percent as individual police officers.
Notably, over 200,000 Indian army people have served in 49 of the 71 UN peacekeeping missions around the world since 1948.
