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British troops arrive in Juba for UN peacekeeping mission

The BBC is reporting that British troops have arrived in South Sudan where they will be part of a UN peacekeeping mission.

Fighting broke out in South Sudan shortly after becoming the world’s newest nation in 2011 after vice president Riek Marchar was fired by President Salvar Kiir.

Several lives were lost, an estimated 1.7m people displaced and property destroyed during a two-year war between government and rebel troops under Marchar.

Several peace deals on the table brokered by neighbouring nations went cold as the two leaders played delaing tactics.

Two months ago Marchar finally returned to Juba to seal a long awaited peace deal, and was reinstalled as vice president.

BBC reports up to 300 UK troops are to be sent.

The small military team, which is the first wave of troops from Britain, will join more than 12,000 UN troops from more than 50 nations currently stationed in the country.

The UK personnel will be split into two engineer squadrons to provide “vital engineering work to strengthen infrastructure as well as further advisory support”, the MoD said.

There will be further deployments throughout the rest of 2016, it added.

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