Gunmen kill peacekeeper in South Darfur

May 8, 2009 (EL FASHER) – Unknown gunmen killed an international peacekeeper outside his home in the troubled western Sudan region of Darfur, the hybrid mission announced today.

The death of this UNAMID observer raises the total number of peacekeepers killed in Darfur to 15, since the deployment of the hybrid peacekeeping mission in Darfur in Januarys 2008.

The blue helmet was killed on Thursday at 8.30 p.m. while “he was opening the gate of his residence in Nyala, the state capital, to park his vehicle,” said Nourredine Mezni the UNAMID spokesperson. The vehicle of the peacekeeper was found abounded about seven kilometers outside the capital of South Darfur state, Nyala.

UNAMID chief Rodolphe Adada condemned the killing stressing that attacks on peacekeepers constitute war crimes. He further urged the Sudanese government and the rebel groups to do everything possible to bring the perpetrators of last night’s shooting to justice.

“This attack is deplorable. UNAMID peacekeepers are here to assist the people of Darfur, and any attack on them is totally unacceptable,” said Adada. “I would like to express my deepest condolences to the family of the peacekeeper who lost his life.”

The mission did not disclose the name or the nationality of the victim “pending notification to next of kin”.

U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said: “It is illustrative of the security problems there are in Darfur … which we have seen on many occasions already and that is part of the problem of making sure that not only UNAMID can continue to work there successfully, but also the humanitarian actors.

“We need to tackle this banditry, tackle this kind of criminality,” said Holmes, who is due in Darfur on Saturday.

The number of UNAMID carjacking in the region has decreased since last year, however south Darfur continues to witness such incident. On March 17, a Nigerian peacekeeper was shot and killed during an ambush of a Mission escort patrol near Nyala.

(ST)