2024 is the 10th year that Vietnam has joined the UN’s peacekeeping mission. Vietnamese soldiers and officers have celebrated 10 Tet holidays far from their homes. There are no ornamental kumquat trees and peach blossoms, which northern Vietnamese display in their homes on Tet. And there are no yellow apricot flowers from the southern region of Vietnam. However, the blue-beret officers have had a happy and cosy Tet.

Family conditions of Vietnamese soldiers and officers differ, but they have the same feeling: they miss their families and friends. However, they understand that as army officers, they have to live far from home.

Understanding their feelings, the Ministry of National Defence several days ago organized a special online meeting connecting Vietnamese soldiers and officers at the missions with their family members, comrades and colleagues in Vietnam.

At the connection point in Abyei in South Sudan, via LED screens, mothers and fathers, wives and husbands, and sons and daughters were moved to tears when seeing their relatives smiling and giving wishes on the occasion of the New Lunar Year of the Dragon. 

On a makeshift altar covered with military canvas, fruits and cakes were seen displayed below a portrait of President Ho Chi Minh and the national red flag with yellow stars and the UNs blue flag. On both sides were two peach and apricot branches made from African forest tree branches by Vietnamese "blue beret" soldiers.

The mission

Colonel Mac Duc Trong, deputy head of the Vietnam Department of Peacekeeping Operations, was one of the first two Vietnamese peacekeeping soldiers. Trong and Colonel Tran Nam Ngan went to South Sudan as Liaison Officers in 2014.

At meetings of the peacekeeping officers, Trong is called Mister First Time. He is one of the first two officers serving in the peacekeeping force, and also the first Captain of Vietnam's first Military Engineer Corps - Engineer Team No1.

Trong, who talked with his comrades during the online meeting from Vietnam, recalled the two tenures of his service for the peacekeeping force.

“If I’m asked to briefly summarize my term of office, I would say it was a 'successful beginning'. This was exactly the task the Party, State and Army’s leaders entrusted to the 1st Engineering Team when the team was set up in early 2022," Trong said.

This was Vietnam’s first unit carrying out operations in an unfamiliar area, but the entire team overcame difficulties and fulfilled their tasks "beyond expectations". 

The team completed a high number of works, including the building of 11 classrooms and libraries, and upgrading of backbone roads in Abyei. 

In October 2022, when the team was drilling wells to supply water to local people, Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien, Vietnamese Deputy Minister of National Defence, had a business trip there. 

He instructed the team to give local people a power generator. With the machine, for the first time a high school in Abeyei lit up. The students at the school could study with a personal computer given by the team as a present.

Engineer Corps No 2 is continuing to implement the mission of Engineer Corps No 1.

Trong said that when they left, many things remained unfinished, including the plan to build a people protection area. He said that two classrooms became unroofed because of the impact from armed conflicts.

Hearing the concerns, Colonel Nguyen Viet Hung, who is now in Abyei, said the protection area of one hectare, capable of supporting 200-300 people in emergency cases, has been set up. Regarding the two classrooms, the team is seeking materials to roof them soon.

Abyei’s Minister of Education Nyinkwany Aguer Bol said Vietnam's peacekeeping force has fulfilled their peacekeeping task, but also  "has done a better job than the assigned mission" through its support of local people.

Tran Thuong