04 UN
PEACEKEEPERS KILLED IN CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
A Christian rebel group in the
Central African Republic ambushed a U.N. convoy, sparking a firefight and
kidnappings that left four peacekeepers dead, eight injured and one missing,
the United Nations said Tuesday.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric
said eight fighters from the anti-Balaka rebel group were also killed in the
battle Monday night. The U.N. peacekeeping mission said the remaining attackers
fled into the bush.
The U.N. mission sent a
helicopter and additional troops to secure the site near Bangassou, about 474
kilometers (295 miles) east of the capital, Bangui, and were continuing to
search for the missing peacekeeper, Dujarric said. In the initial ambush and
firefight, one Cambodian peacekeeper was killed and seven Moroccans and one
Cambodian were injured, he said.
Three Cambodian soldiers and one
Moroccan peacekeeper were also reported missing, according to U.N. and
Cambodian officials. Dujarric said three of the missing peacekeepers were later
found dead. He said he did not know their nationalities. The injured
peacekeepers were evacuated by helicopter to the capital and are now receiving
medical aid, he said, and the United Nations is coordinating with government
officials "to ensure the perpetrators are arrested and brought to
justice."
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio
Guterres issued a statement late Tuesday strongly condemning the attack and
stressing "that attacks against United Nations peacekeepers may constitute
a war crime." He urged Central African Republic authorities "to
swiftly bring those responsible to justice." The country descended into
sectarian conflict in 2013 when Muslim rebels overthrew the nation's Christian
president.
The United Nations launched a
peacekeeping mission there in 2014 and now has more than 12,000 troops deployed
to protect civilians from violence between Christian and Muslim factions. Some
890,000 people have been displaced inside the country and into neighboring
Cameroon, the U.N. says.
The latest fighting began in
February and Human Rights Watch said last week that at least 45 people have
been killed and 11,000 displaced in attacks by armed groups that have also
targeted civilians.
One predominantly Peul faction of
the mostly Muslim Seleka group has been fighting since late 2016 with another
faction that has aligned itself with the Christian anti-Balaka group as they
vie for control of the central part of the country, the rights group said.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen
announced news of the attack in video remarks published on his official
Facebook page. He said the Cambodians were part of an engineering unit that was
helping to build roads, bridges and other infrastructure. The ambush took place
as the Cambodians were on the way back to their base with an escort of Moroccan
soldiers.
Chhum Socheath, a spokesman for
the Cambodian National Defense Ministry, said the slain peacekeeper was a
captain and his body was being sent home. Cambodia has deployed 12 soldiers to
the central African nation in recent months, he said.
Over the weekend, four international
aid groups said they would temporarily withdraw their workers from parts of
northern Central African Republic because of increasing attacks targeting them.
The four — Solidarities International, Intersos, Danish Church Aid and Person
in Need Relief Mission — said they were moving to Bangui.
