Defense Minister Naoki Tanaka on Friday ordered the Self-Defense Forces to prepare to send the second contingent of ground troops to South Sudan as part of the U.N. peacekeeping operations.
The order came a day after the government decided to send the second Ground Self-Defense Force unit after assessing that current military tensions between South Sudan and Sudan will not affect the GSDF's operations. GSDF personnel are currently deployed to South Sudan's capital of Juba to help build infrastructure. The second batch of around 330 service members will be dispatched to South Sudan from around June 8 and begin full-fledged engineering work, Defense Ministry officials said.
The first GSDF contingent arrived in Juba in January to prepare for the engineering work, including road construction. The government's assessment is based on a report by a fact-finding team sent to South Sudan earlier this month to check on security there.