DHAKA, Aug 26, 2025 (BSS) – A contingent of 180 Bangladeshi policemen today left Dhaka to join the UN peacekeeping mission in Democratic Republic of Congo, the second largest African country.

According to a police statement the contingent flew to the middle African country aboard a chartered plane while Superintendent of Police Jannat Afroz leads the group that comprises 70 female police personnel.

The UN called the mission UN Organisation Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) saying it was aimed to establish peace in the troubled nation.

The UN calls such police contingents as “formed police units” or FPUs, which are trained and equipped to act as a cohesive unit capable of accomplishing policing tasks that individual police officers could not address.

The Bangladeshi police unit left Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at about 12:41 am for Kinshasa, the capital of the DR Congo.

Additional Inspector General of Police to the Police Headquarters Khandkar Rafiqul Islam, Deputy Inspector General Md Rezaul Karim and concerned officers were present at the airport to see off the blue helmet mission.

According to the police statement, Bangladesh police contingents are engaged in Congo as UN FPUs since 2005, while female police personnel are performing as peacekeepers there from 2011.

It said Bangladesh police have been working under the UN peacekeeping missions to establish peace in different areas of the world since 1989.

Currently, a total of 215 police personnel are engaged in UN peacekeeping missions, of which 178 are FPU and 37 individual police officers (IPOs).

Until now 75 Bangladeshi policewomen were engaged in UN missions and of the 68 were part FPUs and seven were IPOs.

A total of 21,816 police personnel returned home so far completion of their responsibility in UN peacekeeping mission successfully.