170 police peacekeepers leave for Mali mission
Since 2013, peacekeepers from the Bangladesh Police have been rendering their services in Bamako – the capital of Mali
Two contingents of 170 Bangladesh Police personnel left Dhaka on Tuesday night to join the Mali UN peacekeeping mission on rotation.
Superintendent of Police (SP) Munshi Shahabuddin is leading the first group comprising 140 members of Bangladesh Formed Police Unit-1 (BANFPU-1) in the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali.
The 30-member second contingent – BANFPU-2, led by SP Md Masud Rana, left for Mali on the same flight.
Since 2013, peacekeepers from the Bangladesh Police have been rendering their services in Bamako – the capital of Mali, said a press release.
The BANFPU-2 unit, since 2017, has been working to establish peace in the volatile and landlocked territory of West Africa.
Officials of the UN Affairs branch of the Police Headquarters saw the peacekeepers off at HazratShahjalal International Airport.
Members of the Bangladesh Police made its debut as peacekeepers in the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Namibia in 1989.
Apart from Mali, Bangladesh Police members have been performing their duties professionally in UN peacekeeping missions in different troubled corners of the world, including Darfur, Haiti, Congo, South Sudan and Thailand.