Japan on Monday started withdrawing its troops from the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), UN officials have confirmed.
Japan has had a 350-strong contingent in war-torn South Sudan for the past five years, majorly tasked with helping in the infrastructural sector.
“The first group is leaving today,” Reuters reports Daniel Dickinson, spokesman for the U.N. peace keeping mission called UNMISS, to say moments before the troops were due to board their flight at Juba International Airport.
Dickinson said the Japanese contingent would leave in three batches and that the group that was due to leave on Monday had 68 troops.
South Sudan descended into war in December 2013 following President Salva Kiir’s allegations that his then-vice president Riek Machar was plotting a coup against his rule. Machar denied the allegations but then went on to mobilize a rebel force to fight the government.
A peace deal was signed in 2015 allowing Machar to return to his position in March last year, but war soon erupted again in July following clashes in the capital Juba between forces loyal to the two leaders.
The war has killed thousands of people and forced hundreds of thousands to flee to neighbouring countries.
The UN earlier this year warned of a possible genocide, a warning that has been supported by top officials from the world body, who said ethnic cleansing was being conducted in the country.
