Russian soldier wounded in Sudan’s Juba explosion

May 20, 2006 (MOSCOW) — A Russian soldier serving under a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Sudan has been wounded, the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday following a fire and explosion at an arms dump in South Sudan’s Juba.

The soldier, a senior warrant officer, was wounded when an unexploded shell landed in the tent he was in. He was taken to a UN hospital, where he received treatment, the defense ministry said.

A fire at a munitions dump sparked a wave of explosions outside the southern Sudanese capital of Juba on Friday, injuring several people and rattling nerves in the region that suffered two decades of civil war.

Russia has sent two group contingents of peacekeepers to the troubled North African state to join a UN mission that includes military observers and civilian police.

The first group of Russian peacekeepers flew to the East African country April 20 and the second on the first week of May.

(ST)