Phnom Penh (FN), March 27 – Cambodia will not take back her peacekeepers from Mali; the kingdom spent USD 15 million budget for purchasing armored vehicles to protect the kingdom’s peacekeeping forces to Africa’s Republic of Mali under the United Nations framework, Prime Minister Hun Sen addressed Wednesday at the graduation ceremony held at National Institute of Education in Phnom Penh.

The Premier said the UN budget is running low that the kingdom decided to contribute to UN peacekeeping operations.

Prime Minister said that due to wars in Mali, schools are closed. However, in Cambodia, no matter how challenging the situation was in 1979, the kingdom still managed to provide education to students. He thanked teachers nationwide for a huge sacrifice to develop the kingdom’s human resource.

Once a country receiving UN peacekeeping force, Cambodia has now become a country that dispatches its troops to serve under the UN peacekeeping missions in many countries. Since 2006, Cambodia has sent 5,783 peacekeepers, 277 females, to carry out UN peacekeeping missions in Sudan, South Sudan, Lebanon, Cyprus, Syria, Chad, Mali and Central African Republic, according to Kosal Malinda, spokeswoman of Cambodia's National Center for Peacekeeping Forces and Explosive Remnants of War Clearance. Currently, 813 Cambodian peacekeepers, 50 females, are carrying out UN peacekeeping missions in five countries.