Tri-Service
Paras To Deploy To South Sudan
The Defence Secretary is visiting the British Army's high-readiness paratroopers, who are heading to South Sudan to serve on a UN peacekeeping mission.
Sir Michael Fallon has promised that in total, 400 British soldiers will be in the country by 2017.
A civil war has been fought in South Sudan for the past three years.
The map below shows Sudan and South Sudan, with the area of land that is disputed between them in dark orange.
Forces TV went to Colchester to speak to Mr Fallon about the situation in Sudan.
"If countries like South Sudan descend into chaos, in the end, it affects us in Europe. We see more migration, we see more insurgency and terrorism, and in the end it affects us, so it's right that we should be doing more to tackle these problems further down the line by getting in early and helping to keep the peace in countries like this".
Mr Fallon stressed that sending troops to South Sudan would not in any way detract from Britain's existing military commitments in Estonia and Poland, Romania, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
The Defence Secretary said that it was also right for the UK to do its 'fair share' of peacekeeping in places like South Sudan because it has the fifth largest defence budget in the world.
Cover image shows destroyed weapons collected by the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan.
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