UNAMID peacekeeper killed by unknown gunmen in South Darfur

August 12, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – A member of the UN-AU joint peacekeeping mission in Darfur known as UNAMID was killed and another was injured when gunmen attacked their policing unit on Sunday.

UNAMID said in a press release that the peacekeeper from Bangladesh died at 3:15 a.m. after an armed gang surrounded and fired at staff in the mission’s community policing centre inside the Otash camp for internally displaced persons in South Darfur State.

The mission’s Acting Joint Special Representative (JSR) Aichatou Mindaoudou, strongly condemned the attack and called on Sudanese authorities to make serious efforts to apprehend the culprits who fled the scene after the shooting.

“The attack on our peacekeepers is cowardly deplorable and our thoughts go to the families and friends of the fallen and the injured,” she said.

The incident brings the number of UNAMID peacekeepers killed since the deployment of the mission in 2007 to 38.

Darfur has been witnessing an upsurge of violence since the assassination of a local official in the northern part of the region earlier this month sparked a wave of revenge attacks that killed 21 people and created dire humanitarian conditions in an IDP camp according to local NGOs figures.

(ST)