The first group of UN peacekeeping reinforcements has arrived in South Sudan’s capital Juba.

The 72 Bangladeshi peacekeepers have come from the Democratic Republic of Congo where they were stationed. They are the first of the near 6,000 additional peacekeepers the UN Security Council is deploying.

The ongoing conflict in South Sudan [File photo]

The ongoing conflict in South Sudan [File photo]

The UN Security Council approved plans on Tuesday to double the number of UN peacekeepers in South Sudan to over 12,000 troops and 1,300 police.

The Bangladeshi officers have been trained in crowd management and security. They will be deployed to help manage the growing population of displaced civilians sheltering in UN compounds throughout the country.

UN Police Commissioner said their biggest challenge right now is the protection of over 60,000 civilians sheltering at the UN bases.

“Our biggest challenge right now is the protection of civilians. You are aware that we have a lot of people that have run away from danger, if you may call it, and they are all over our UN camps and the UNPOL capacity right now is not adequate to handle this,” said UN Police Commissioner Fred Yiga.