The Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, has announced that the Japanese government will end its participation in a United Nations peacekeeping mission on South Sudan at the end of May.
According to Ceoafrica, Abe said "as South Sudan enters a new phase of nation-building, we have judged that we are able to put an end to construction efforts in which the SDF is engaged in Juba".
Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, later stressed that the withdrawal is not because to a deterioration in security in the area where the troops are working.
The Japanese troops who arrived in South Sudan in November 2016 were the first in nearly 70 years to be deployed overseas with a broad mandate to use force if necessary.
South Sudan, which seceded from Sudan in 2011, has been devastated by civil war since 2013.