A team of 100 Chinese engineering and medical troops left for an eight-month UN-mandated peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Tuesday aboard a chartered plane from Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

They are among a total of 218 peacekeepers in the 14th batch China has dispatched to the central African nation since 2003. The other 118 peacekeeping members will leave for the DRC by the end of this month.

According to military sources, the troops, mainly selected from the Xinjiang Military Command Area, received special training before being sent to the DRC, and they are capable of performing tasks associated with engineering projects and medical support for peacekeeping purposes.