FREETOWN, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- Sierra Leone will send 160 military personnel to join the African peacekeeping mission in Darfur, Sudan, the military said on Wednesday night.

    Deputy Chief of Defense Staff of the Sierra Leone Armed Forces Brigadier Robert Koroma told a press conference in the capital Freetown that the contingent will leave for Darfur on Dec. 17 and that it includes 30 personnel from the engineering division.

    He said the development followed what he described as " a successful assessment of a pre-development visit of officers of the department of peace keeping from the UN headquarters in New York."

    According to the deputy chief of defense staff, "all the necessary logistics have been sent well in advance" and a farewell parade will take place tomorrow Friday Dec. 4, where the Head of State who is the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, Ernest Bai Koroma, will review the troops."

    Currently, Sierra Leone has 25 military officers serving in various UN missions in countries, which also include East Timor, Nepal and Lebanon, as military observers and staff officers.