By REUTERS
In Summary
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 UN 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 UN staff
and aid workers. There are also plans to let them guard UN 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.
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