By Ma Yichong

KHARTOUM, June 17 -- China's construction engineering contingent to Darfur in Sudan have completed the cleanup tasks for 10 camps of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) as of June 15. This move will better benefit the local people and lay a solid foundation for the camp handover, which is of great significance for the continuous promotion of peace-building in the Darfur region of Sudan.

There are more than ten camps of UNAMID scattered in the Darfur region. As the UNAMID mission gradually came to an end, it has launched a comprehensive camp clean-up and maintenance mission since the second half of last year for the camps’ smooth hand-over in the future.

As the only engineering support force of the UNAMID, the Chinese contingent undertook the cleaning up and renovating tasks for all these camps.

In the past eight months, with the pursuit of professional, efficient, and high-quality construction, the Chinese peacekeepers have completed the mission with a total of more than 20,000 person-times and 7,000 machine-times. They have leveled more than 90,000 square meters onsite and built 229 prefabricated houses, nearly three kilometers of sandbox walls, more than 10,000 meters of barbed wire fences, as well as more than 30,000 meters of roads.

The UNAMID engineering chief said that the camp area would look completely new as long as they are cleared by the Chinese peacekeeping engineer detachment. "I thank them for their outstanding contributions to the peace-building work of Darfur," said the officer.