Gabon Troops On Peacekeeping In CAR To Return Home Mid-Feb
Gabonese national troops with the MINUSCA peacekeeping mission are expected to return home by mid-Feb after a delayed initial return.
After spending 15 months, instead of the six months initially envisaged, with the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), the current Gabon contingent would return home by mid-February, HumAngle can report.
According to military sources in Libreville, the returning contingent would be replaced by the 7th Battalion of the Gabonese army that was on Dec. 12, 2020, presented to President Ali Bongo Ondimba.
HumAngle reports that Gabon and Morocco are among the countries which contingents to MINUSCA have registered a loss of human lives among their soldiers fighting against rebels in the Central African Republic. The most recent loss by Gabon was in Jan. 2021.
The first group of soldiers to return from the Central African Republic would arrive Libreville on Feb. 16.
Military sources informed HumAngle that this will consist of 36 soldiers who were based in Alindao and 50 soldiers coming in from Mobay and 50 others from Pombolo. The second group is scheduled to arrive Libreville in March this year.
Their replacement with soldiers of the 7th Battalion would consist of 450 soldiers, among whom are 40 women, drawn from various components of the Gabonese military namely, the national gendarmerie, the infantry, the air force, the national marine, the fire brigade, the army light aviation service, the general directorate of the health services of military and the army engineering corps, the republican guards, the counter-intelligence and military security.
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