Japanese troops land in South Sudan, fears of first foreign fighting since WW2

[Hindustani78]

Last Updated: Monday, November 21, 2016 - 17:43
http://zeenews.india.com/news/world...first-foreign-fighting-since-ww2_1951991.html

Juba: A contingent of Japanese troops landed in South Sudan on Monday, an official said - a mission that critics say could see them embroiled in their country`s first overseas fighting since World War Two.

The soldiers will join U.N. peacekeepers and help build infrastructure in the landlocked and impoverished country torn apart by years of civil war.

But, under new powers granted by their government last year, they will be allowed to respond to urgent calls for help from U.N. staff and aid workers.

There are also plans to let them guard U.N. bases, which have been attacked during the fighting.

The deployment of 350 soldiers is in line with Japanese security legislation to expand the military`s role overseas.

Critics in Japan have said, the move risks pulling the troops into conflict for the first time in more than seven decades.

Tsuyoshi Higuchi, from the military`s information department, told Reuters in Juba that 67 troops arrived in the morning while another 63 were expected to land in the afternoon.

The last of the 350 are expected to arrive on December 15, he said.

South Sudan seceded from Sudan in 2011 - a development greeted at the time with mass celebrations in the oil-producing state.

Aid agencies and world powers promised support.

But fighting, largely along ethnic lines, erupted in 2013 after President Salva Kiir sacked his longtime political rival Riek Machar from the post of vice president.

A peace deal, agreed under intense international pressure and the threat of sanctions, brought Machar back to the capital Juba in April, but he fled after more clashes and the violence has continued.

Reuters

First Published: Monday, November 21, 2016 - 17:33

 

[Rajaraja Chola]

Japanese military need combat experiences too. Some people have become too pacifist in Japan and its good they are coming out of it. All the best to Japanese UN mission.

 

[Star Expedition]

Japan should increase the defense spending rapidly to recover its armed force.

 

[Hindustani78]

Japanese military need combat experiences too. Some people have become too pacifist in Japan and its good they are coming out of it. All the best to Japanese UN mission.

According to media reports Japanese troops are deployed in Djibouti.


Djibouti, which is about the size of Wales, is strategically located at the southern entrance to the Red Sea on the route to the Suez Canal. The tiny, barren nation sandwiched between Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia, also hosts U.S. and French bases.

Since 2011, a Japanese Self Defence Force contingent of 180 troops has occupied a 12 hectare (30 acre) site in Djibouti, next to Camp Lemonnier, the U.S. base at the country's international airport.

From there, the SDF have operated maritime patrol aircraft as part of an international force, including China, that hunts pirates in the seas of the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia.

A Japanese Defence Ministry spokesman confirmed discussions were taking place.

"In addition to the land Japan has borrowed, it is considering leasing the neighboring land to its east," the spokesman said in response to a Reuters query. "Japan is now in negotiations with Djibouti government."