URUMQI, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- A team of 100 Chinese engineering and medical troops left for a one-year peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Thursday.

Their plane left the Diwopu airport in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, at 3 a.m.

They are the first group of the 22nd batch of peacekeepers that China has dispatched to the central African nation. The rest of the 218-member batch will leave on Sept. 28.

After arriving in mission areas, the engineering detachment will take on tasks such as maintaining roads, bridges, blindages and airports, while the medical team will focus on treating the wounded, epidemic prevention and humanitarian aid.

While preparing for the mission, they completed special training.