Japan is ending its peacekeeping mission in troubled South Sudan after five years, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced Friday. Abe…
TOKYO —
Japan is ending its peacekeeping mission in troubled South Sudan after five years, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced Friday.
Abe said Japan would not renew the mission after the current rotation returns in May. The 350-person team has focused on road construction.
The team, which arrived in South Sudan in November, was Japan’s first with an expanded mandate to use force if necessary to protect civilians and U. N. staff. The Japanese military’s use of force is limited by the post-World War II constitution.
Abe said Japan would continue to assist South Sudan in other ways such as with food and humanitarian support, and will keep some personnel at the U. N. peacekeeping command office.
“As South Sudan enters a new phase of nation-building, we have decided that we can now put an end to our infrastructure building efforts,” Abe told reporters.
The announcement came amid concern about the safety of the Japanese troops in South Sudan. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, however, denied that led to the decision.
“The decision is a result of our comprehensive considerations and not because of the deteriorating security situation,” he said.
Ateny Wek Ateny, a spokesman for South Sudan President Salva Kiir, said he was not aware of the Japanese decision. Japanese officials said Tokyo has notified both South Sudan’s government and the United Nations of its decision.
U. N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq confirmed that Japan informed the U. N. that it was withdrawing its roughly 350-member engineering contingent at the end of its current rotation in May.
“They’ve been in that post for many years and they’ve been performing a very valuable function and have been a key part of the efforts by the U.
