United Nations officials said on Tuesday that unknown gunmen shot and killed a South African peacekeeper in a restive northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) region.
The soldier was struck late on Monday by a bullet fired from outside a UN base near Kavumu airport — in the DRC’s South Kivu region — and succumbed shortly afterward, said Eliane Nabaa, a spokesperson for the 10 800-strong UN DRC mission.
An investigation is under way, Nabaa said by telephone from Bukavu, the region’s capital. Further details weren’t released.
Twenty-seven UN staff have died during service in the DRC — most from vehicle accidents or illness — since the mission was established in November 1999.
The UN troops are in the DRC to monitor peace deals and help in 2005 elections meant to move the DRC beyond its 1998 to 2003 war. Aid groups estimate that the fighting led to the deaths of 3,3-million, mostly through strife-induced hunger or sickness.
About 3 500 UN soldiers are stationed in the east of the DRC, where violence has continued despite the peace deals, with rival tribal militias battling, raping and looting. A national-unity government — which survived an apparent coup attempt on Sunday in the capital, Kinshasa — is now trying to reassert control over the region.
The UN force in the DRC also includes troops from Bangladesh, Uruguay, Pakistan, Nepal, Indonesia, India and others. — Sapa-AP
SA military, UN investigate DRC death