Tag Archives: Peacekeepers

UN peacekeepers kill four civilians in Central African Republic.

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UN peacekeepers killed four civilians in western Central African Republic, CAR, on Friday.

The Bangladeshi soldiers of the UN peacekeeping Mission in CAR (MINUSCA) fired into a crowd of residents in the town of Bouar.

The residents were seeking refuge at the MINUSCA base in Bouar following rumours of an impending attack by an armed group, Benjamin Kaggama, a lawmaker from Bouar, told dpa.

The UN said it was launching an investigation into the deaths.

MINUSCA spokesman, Vladimir Moteiro, said: “peacekeepers prevented an incursion by a crowd of civilians heading towards their base.

“Under the impression that this was an incursion, and since the civilians wanted to get access to the ammunition depot of the base, those who have the responsibility to protect this depot fired in the air.”

Peace in the diamond-rich but poverty-stricken nation has been volatile since inter-religious violence broke out between Muslim and Christian rebel groups in 2013.

 

Source: NAN

China sends another 120 army peacekeepers to South Sudan

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China has sent 120 troops to South Sudan as part of a 700-member U.N. peacekeeping force, deepening its commitment to the troubled East African nation where two Chinese peacekeepers were killed in fighting over the summer.

 

Once the entire battalion is deployed, they will replace Chinese peacekeepers currently in place, the second battalion to be deployed to South Sudan to protect civilians, U.N. staff and humanitarian workers, conduct patrols and provide security escorts.

 

South Sudan has seen continuous fighting since its civil war broke out in December 2013. The more than 12,000 U.N. peacekeepers already in the country have been criticized for failing to protect civilians. China was an early investor in the new state’s energy sector, but fighting and corruption have largely prevented it from reaping any benefits.

 

In July, two Chinese peacekeepers died and five others were wounded after their vehicle was struck with a rocket propelled grenade as fighting swept the capital, Juba.

 

As part of its push to raise its international profile, China has become the biggest contributor of peacekeepers among the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, with 2,639 currently deployed.

 

President Xi Jinping said last year that China would also set up a permanent peacekeeping standby force of 8,000 troops to be deployed whenever necessary.

UN Troops Hit by Another Deadly Attack in Mali

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 A Senegalese peacekeeper was killed on Tuesday as a UN camp in northern Mali came under rocket fire in an attack blamed on a jihadist leader driven from the country by French troops. The strike came just as the UN vowed to bolster defences for its troops in Mali after suffering its deadliest attack on Friday — an ambush by Al-Qaeda-linked militants that claimed nine peacekeepers’ lives.

“This is no longer in the context of maintaining peace,” said Herve Ladsous, the UN’s head of peacekeeping operations, as he announced deployments of drones and armoured vehicles.

“We are required to take a series of measures … to toughen up our bases, and boost our protection,” he said at a press conference after a attending the nine peacekeepers’ funeral in Mali’s capital Bamako.

As he spoke, the UN mission came under a fresh attack, this time blamed on Iyad Ag Ghaly, who led a Tuareg rebellion in the Sahara before setting up the armed group Ansar Dine.

The jihadist had disappeared in January 2013 soon after France intervened to drive Islamist insurgents back from Bamako but resurfaced last month to issue a video message signalling his return to combat.

He said his group was “ready to unite with our brothers on the ground to face up to the crusaders and infidels who have united to fight Islam in our land”.

“The Malian Islamist Iyad Ag Ghaly has carried out his threat by attacking the camp of the UN mission in Kidal,” a source from the UN’s MINUSMA force in Mali told AFP.

The source said at least five rockets were fired and added that the “provisional death toll” was one peacekeeper, giving his nationality as Senegalese.

A resident of Kidal contacted by AFP by telephone confirmed the information.

“The camp was attacked, we heard loud noises. It’s rockets. It’s dark here now and we don’t know what is happening,” he said.

In New York, the UN Security Council condemned the attack and called on Bamako to launch an investigation and “bring the perpetrators to justice”.

 

At Least Nine UN Peacekeepers killed in Mali Ambush

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Suspected Islamists killed at least nine United Nations peacekeepers from Niger on Friday in northeastern Mali, in the deadliest ever attack on the mission, military sources said.

MINUSMA did not immediately hold any armed group responsible, but a Nigerien officer from the mission told AFP the attack had been carried out by the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), an Al-Qaeda-linked militia behind numerous attacks in recent years.

“This morning, a convoy of MINUSMA peacekeepers from the Nigerien contingent was the target of a direct attack while travelling to Indelimane, in the Menaka-Asongo corridor. A provisional toll indicated nine deaths,” a statement from the UN mission said.

“This is to date the deadliest attack against the UN mission in Mali,” the statement said, adding that aircraft had been deployed to secure the area.

Arnauld Akodjenou, the deputy head of the mission, said he was “horrified” by the “cowardly” attack.

“Once again, lives have now been lost in the name of peace in Mali. These crimes must not go unpunished,” he said in the statement.

“This violence must stop immediately and MINUSMA again challenges all those involved in finding solutions for sustainable peace to take responsibility for a rapid resolution of the crisis that has lasted too long.”

The Nigerien MINUSMA source said MUJAO had formed an alliance with militants from the Fulani ethnic group in the Gao region where the attack took place.

“The terrorists had threatened to carry out attacks, attacks in the run-up to the feast of Tabaski. They’ve just carried them out,” added a Malian military source, using the west African name for the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha taking place on Sunday.

 Menaka, an isolated Sahara desert town in eastern Mali crisscrossed by seasonally dry riverbeds, is used mainly as a temporary home by nomadic Tuareg tribes.