15 UN peacekeepers killed in DR Congo by Ugandan rebels

Goma, DR Congo - The UN suffered its worst attack on a peacekeeping mission in nearly a quarter of a century when suspected Ugandan rebels attacked a base in the restive east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, killing at least 15 peacekeepers.

The UN Security Council said on Friday the peacekeepers, who were all from neighbouring Tanzania, were killed in the North Kivu province late on Thursday, alongside five Congolese soldiers, with 53 personnel wounded.

UN chief Antonio Guterres led an outpouring of outrage over the deadly ambush, calling it a ‘heinous’ act.

‘I condemn this attack unequivocally. These deliberate attacks against UN peacekeepers are unacceptable and constitute a war crime’, he said in a statement.

Heather Nauert, spokeswoman for the State Department, said Washington was ‘appalled by the horrific act’.

Tanzania’s President John Magufuli said he was ‘shocked’ and ‘saddened’ by the deaths of ‘brave soldiers and heroes who lost their lives accomplishing their peace mission in our neighbour the DRC’.

The attack is the worst loss of life to a UN peacekeeping force since 1993 when 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed in Somalia during clashes with a local warlord.

DR Congo's huge eastern region has long been wracked by violence, but fighting between government soldiers and militia groups, as well as inter-ethnic clashes, has increased significantly this year.

The UN in October declared a level 3 emergency in DR Congo -a status afforded to conflicts in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

MONUSCO, the UN's peacekeeping force in DR Congo, said its operating base at Semuliki, North Kivu, was attacked by ‘suspected Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) elements’. The ADF is a shadowy rebel group dominated by hardline Ugandan Muslims, and one of several armed groups active in the North Kivu region.

"Attacks against those who are working in the service of peace and stability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are cowardly," MONUSCO head Maman Sidikou said in a statement. Some of those wounded in the attack are in critical condition with the medical evacuation of casualties continuing. MONUSCO, a 18,000-member force, has suffered scores of attacks since its establishment in DR Congo, a vast, mineral-rich but chronically unstable nation home to myriad warring groups and ethnic groups.

The ADF has been accused by Kinshasa and the UN mission of killing more than 700 people in the Beni region since October 2014. Human Rights Watch has documented more than 500 civilian deaths, at least 1,087 people kidnapped, and 11 reports of mass rape in North Kivu since June.

These deliberate attacks against UN peacekeepers are unacceptable and constitute a war crime Antonio Guterres