India deploys a women-only platoon of peacekeepers to the UN Mission in Abyei on the border of Sudan and South Sudan as part of the Indian Battalion in the United Nations Interim Security Force, Abyei.
The Indian contingent, which consists of two officers and 25 other ranks, will work as a platoon in an engagement and specialise in community outreach in addition to carrying out numerous security-related duties.
This time India is deploying the largest single unit of female Blue Helmets in a UN mission since 2007.
India was the first country to deploy the first-ever all-female Formed Police Unit (FPU) in the history of United Nations peacekeeping in Liberia on 30th January 2007.
UN peacekeeping began in 1948 when the UN Security Council authorised the deployment of UN military observers in the Middle East.
