Six UN peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). were wounded in an overnight ambush in the strife-torn eastern part of the country.
The UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission in DRC (MONUSCO) disclosed this in a statement at the UN Headquarters in New York, saying that a local interpreter was also wounded in the ambush.
It explained that the six peacekeepers and their interpreter were part of the Indian contingent serving with MONUSCO and were ambushed while returning from a patrol with 12 other peacekeepers near Buganza in North Kivu province after finding the bodies of four civilians.
“This premeditated, targeted and deliberate attack is inadmissible.
“We will work with the national authorities to identify those responsible for this ignoble deed so that they are called to justice,’’ the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of MONUSCO, Roger Meece was quoted as saying.
A UN Indian peacekeeper was killed in the same province in July when he was caught in a cross-fire in clashes between the DRC’s armed forces and a rebel group known as the March 23 Movement (M23).
The DRC’s eastern provinces of North and South Kivu has witnessed increased fighting between government troops and the M23, composed of renegade soldiers who mutinied in April.
Fighting has displaced more than 300,000 people, including many who fled to neighbouring Rwanda and Uganda, as well as within DRC.
MONUSCO, with 19,000 uniformed personnel is the latest UN peacekeeping missions that helped to bring stability and civilian elections to the vast country after it was torn apart by civil wars and rebel movements.
Much of the country has achieved a measure of stability but fighting with various dissident groups continued in the East where the bulk of the peacekeepers are deployed. ?
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