UN Peacekeeper Shot Dead In Eastern DR Congo

UN Peacekeeper Shot Dead In Eastern DR Congo
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Fresh reports reaching the desk of Africa Daily News, New York has revealed that a United Nations peacekeeper has been killed in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as had been reported by the United Nations (UN) and Congolese officials on Saturday.

It  had also been reported that the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC which is also known as MONUSCO, had stated that suspected members of the Twirwaneho militia had conducted the attack on Friday night in the Minembwe area of South Kivu province.

Read Also; 17 Civilians Killed By Rebel Group In DR Congo

“A peacekeeper was killed by armed men who approached the base after having contacted MONUSCO for a surrender,” MONUSCO said.

“Attacks against peacekeepers may constitute a war crime,” it added, calling on Congolese authorities to hold the perpetrators responsible.

The Twirwaneho militia is also one of over 120 armed groups which operate in volatile eastern DRC and it claims to represent the interests of the Banyamulenge, a Congolese Tutsi community.

A Congolese army spokesman in the Minembwe area, Lieutenant Jeremie Meya, also said that Twirwaneho militiamen had killed the UN peacekeeper under the “ruse” of turning themselves in.

“These thugs shot the victim at close range and (he) died on the spot, they fled after this crime and disappeared,” Meya said.

Kibibi Saint Cadet who is the head of a civil-society group in Minembwe, told AFP that the UN peacekeeper who had been killed was Pakistani but MONUSCO was unable to immediately confirm the nationality of the slain peacekeeper, however.

The attack comes after deadly anti-UN protests shook eastern DRC in July. Thirty-two demonstrators and four UN troops died over the course the week-long unrest, according to a Congolese toll, and UN bases were ransacked.

Many Congolese are frustrated by MONUSCO’s perceived ineffectiveness in the face of persistent violence. The UN first deployed an observer mission to eastern Congo in 1999.

It had also become the peacekeeping mission MONUSCO which is the short form of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — in 2010 which had come with a mandate to conduct offensive operations and it currently has about 16,000 uniformed personnel.

 

Africa Daily News, New York

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