More than 200 Cambodian troops took off yesterday on a UN peacekeeping mission to the Central African Republic.

Dressed in military regalia, the peacekeepers gathered before their departure yesterday morning for a send-off at the Military Airbase in Phnom Penh, presided over by Minister of Defence Tea Banh, and Roger Carter, the security adviser of the UN Development Program to Cambodia.

Monks and senior Royal Cambodian Armed Forces officials were also in attendance.

“As is widely known, today’s ceremony is another historical achievement, among the greatest ones accomplished by our RCAF,” Banh said.

The 216 military personnel will conduct their one-year mission in Bria, about 600 kilometres east of CAR’s capital Bangui, constructing roads, demining and digging wells, among other tasks.

Since 2006, Cambodia has sent 2,165 personnel on UN peacekeeping missions in Sudan, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Chad, Syria, Lebanon and Mali.