<br/>Lieutenant General Chander Prakash has been appointed the Force Commander for the UN peacekeeping force in Congo by United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon.<br/><br/>Lt Gen Prakash will succeed Lt Gen Babacar Gaye of Senegal.<br/><br/>Lt Gen Prakash trained at India's National Defence and Military Academies prior to being commissioned into the artillery branch of the Indian Armed forces in 1973.<br/><br/>He was Senior Sector Operations Officer in the United Nations Iran-Iraq Military Observer Group.<br/><br/>There are presently 18,884 military personnel and 1,223 police personnel in Congo. Among the South Asian countries troops have come from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.<br/><br/>The peacekeeping force has been in Congo since 1999 following a ferocious war between the government and the rebels that claimed approximately four million lives.<br/><br/>A peace agreement was signed in 2003 but fighting continues in several parts of the country.<br/><br/>Projects that Indians have carried out include, a road linking Goma with the port, new bridgeworks to connect villages in remote areas, provision of corrugated iron for the reconstruction. The Indians are also running the Bethesda Eye Hospital in Goma in partnership with an international NGO.<br/><br/>They have also constructed a community hall and passenger sheds for travellers, volleyball and basketball courts as well as a football ground at Vitshumbi.