ISLAMABAD: The spokesman of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says that Pakistan will send a military helicopter to join the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, a West African country affected by violence after several countries announced their withdrawal.
According to spokesman Farhan Haq, India will provide utility helicopter units to the United Nations peacekeeping mission MINUSMA, and all three are expected to be deployed by March 2023.
A spokesman said, ”they provide much-needed armed protection to our forces and are critical for early warning and rapid response to protect civilians”.
Deploy new assets to fight militants
He said the UN continued to discuss plans with member states to deploy new assets and fill the long gap left by recent withdrawal announcements, including MINUSMA, which was established in 2013 to fight militants.
The spokesman said it intended to help foreign and local troops, but there have been repeated incidents of tension between Malian officials and the mission in recent months.
MINUSMA has approximately 12,000 military personnel in the country. Chad, Bangladesh, and Egypt are among the top three donor countries.
Pakistan army doctors serving in Mali town
Despite the dangerous nature of MINUSMA, Pakistani army doctors serving in Mopti, a town in Mali’s fifth administrative region, continue to do their jobs gracefully. The Pakistani military runs a state-of-the-art hospital with 75 medical staff, including 10 women.
The hospital operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and the management is always on alert. All specialties, from pharmacy to gynecology are covered. However, its primary purpose is to perform life-saving and quick surgeries on injured peacekeepers, as pointed out.
