Field-hospital members sent to South Sudan return in November

HCM CITY — Staff of Việt Nam's Level-2 field Hospital No 2 is scheduled to be sent to South Sudan from November 13-26 to assume the tasks their peers of Hospital No 1 are performing within the UN peacekeeping mission in the African country.Speaking at a working session at Military Hospital 175 in HCM City on Friday, Director of the Việt Nam Department of Peacekeeping Operations Colonel Hoàng Kim Phụng said that the 63 members of the first level-two field hospital will return next month to Việt Nam after completing their duties in South Sudan.

Members of the hospital group will arrive at Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport in HCM City on November 21 and 28.

Speaking at a meeting held in HCM City yesterday to review preparation for the welcoming ceremony, Deputy Minister of Defence Senior Lt Gen Nguyễn Chí Vịnh said the deployment of the first level-two field hospital in South Sudan was part of Việt Nam’s long-term participation in UN peacekeeping missions.

An official ceremony to welcome and honour the returning peacekeepers will be held on December 2 at Military Hospital 175 in HCM City. 

Since last October, when they first left for South Sudan, the hospital has offered treatment for nearly 1,800 patients, with many life-saving surgeries successfully conducted.

Major General Nguyễn Hồng Sơn, director of Military Hospital 175, said that experienced peacekeepers would provide training – in terms of political education, English language, military capabilities, survival skills, and ensuring security and safety in the missions – for officials who participate in UN peacekeeping missions in the future.

Việt Nam dispatched the first hospital to the UN mission in South Sudan in October 2018.

Officers and soldiers of the hospital have well finished their mission to ensure health care for UN peacekeepers in South Sudan. They also actively joined defence foreign affairs and served as medical care-givers to locals. —VNS