The Bolivian Congress adopted a resolution Wednesday to authorize the dispatch of 220 soldiers to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), reports from Bolivia's capital La Paz said.

The resolution was approved in a majority of votes despite the abstention of the legislators of the radical Movement to Socialism,the second largest party in the parliament.

The 220 soldiers will head for the central African country in early June to replace the Bolivian servicemen already there. The Bolivian troops are part of the UN 10,800-strong peacekeeping force deployed in the DRC.

Between 1998 and late 2002, the DRC was wracked by a complex war on several rebel fronts, which drew in the armies of more thanhalf a dozen nations and claimed, directly or indirectly, more than 2.5 million lives.

Source: Xinhua