Two South African peacekeepers serving with the United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were killed on Sunday and nine others wounded during an attack by unidentified armed men near the eastern city of Goma, the mission said.
The attack happened around midday near Rugari, about 40km north of Goma, the capital of Nord-Kivu province, said spokesperson for the UN mission, Jacqueline Chenard.
”Two South African blue helmets are dead and nine others are wounded and have been evacuated by helicopter,” she added.
She said the attack was not connected to clashes last week in Bukavu, the capital of the adjacent Sud-Kivu province, between rival factions in the army.
”Two peacekeepers’ trucks were coming back to Goma from Rutshuru, about 80km from Goma when locals said a civilian truck had been attacked,” the spokesperson said.
”They decided to go and see and, when at the scene, were attacked by unidentified men,” she added, giving no further details of the incident.
She said locals blamed the attack on Interahamwe, a term used for Hutu extremists who fled to eastern DRC from neighbouring Rwanda after carrying out the 1994 genocide there.
Sunday’s killings come in the wake of a bad week for the peacekeeping mission, called Monuc.
On the night of May 28, a Monuc military observer was killed by unidentified men at Kalehe, 40km north of Bukavu, the capital of Sud-Kivu province.
Monuc said the observers’ post at Kalehe was attacked by men in uniform.
About 40 Monuc personnel have died in DRC since the mission was deployed in 2001, when the country was still in the throes of rebel war that sucked in troops from more than half a dozen countries in the region.
Most of the deaths were caused by medical problems and accidents, including mine explosions.
In May 2003, two military observers, a Jordanian and a Malawian, were hacked to death in the northeastern Ituri region.
Anti-Monuc protests took place across the country in the wake of last Wednesday’s capture of Bukavu by a dissident army officer, General Laurent Nkunda. The takeover took place in the presence of hundreds of Monuc troops.
Several people were killed in Kinshasa as security forces shot at looters during the demonstrations.
The mandate of the 10 800 Monuc troops is to protect the military observers and oversee key aspects of the peace process, such as the disarmament of some of the groups involved in the war.
Monuc is authorised to use force in self-defence and when the lives of civilians and humanitarian workers are threatened.
Last week, UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Marie Guehenno said the Monuc’s strength would probably be increased soon. – Sapa-AFP