U.K. to Send Troops to Somalia and South Sudan on UN Missions

Prime Minister David Cameron announced the deployment of British troops to Somalia and South Sudan to aid peacekeeping operations.

As many as 370 personnel will provide engineering, training and logistical support for United Nations and African Union efforts to end the conflicts in the two countries and help counter the threat of al-Shabaab Islamic militants in Somalia, Cameron’s office said. The premier will outline details of the plan at the UN in New York on Monday.

“The quality of peacekeeping operations needs to be enhanced,” Cameron told reporters as he traveled to New York on Sunday. “We think Britain has a particular role in training, logistics, expertise and standards, so we want to step up what we’re doing.”

The U.K., which has 280 peacekeepers in Cyprus and contributes 323 million pounds ($490 million) a year to the UN’s $8.5 billion peacekeeping budget, has been reluctant to commit ground troops to combat operations since the public backlash over the war in Iraq.

Cameron emphasized that the deployment to East Africa will be in a support role and “very great care” will be taken to protect British forces. Mindful of domestic opinion about the deployment of British troops, he emphasized the benefits for the U.K. of peace in the region.

“We’ll want to see all the right force-protection arrangements in place, but we should be playing a part in this,” he said. “The outcome in Somalia, if that’s a good outcome, is good for Britain. It means less terrorism, less migration, less piracy, and the same in South Sudan.”

The U.K. commitment has yet to be finalized but may involve as many as 70 personnel being sent to Somalia and between 250 and 300 going to South Sudan over a series of deployments, Cameron’s office said.

A civil war that began in oil-producing South Sudan in December 2013 has left 2 million people displaced and 4 million designated as suffering severe food insecurity. Britain has provided 260 million pounds in humanitarian aid to the country over that time. In Somalia, al-Shabaab has waged an insurgency since 2006 in a bid to impose a strict version of Islamic law.