India is contributing two teams of 30 specialists to fortify medical facilities in UN peacekeeping operations in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to meet the COVID-19 challenge, according to India's UN mission.

New Delhi was responding to a request from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for assistance to scale-up hospital facilities managed by Indian peacekeepers in those countries to counter the COVID-19 outbreak there, the mission said on Friday.

“This gesture has been welcomed,” it said.

A team of 15 specialists will go later this month to Goma in DRC where the hospital run by India since January 2005 already has 90 Indians including 18 specialists, according to it.

The main command and control centre for the UN peacekeeping mission known as MONUCO for the French acronym for UN Organisation Stabilization Mission in DRC is located in Goma. There are 2,030 Indian peacekeepers deployed with MONUSCO.

Another team of 15 specialists will go to Juba in South Sudan, where the Indian hospital with 77 Indians including 12 specialists has been running since 2016 with the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), which has 2,420 Indian peacekeepers.