WORST ATTACK ON UN IN DECADES KILLS 15 PEACEKEEPERS IN CONGO
▶ Chief Antonio Guterres says ambush by Ugandan rebels on troops was a heinous act
The United Nations suffered its worst attack on a peacekeeping mission in 24 years after Ugandan rebels attacked a base in the Democratic Republic of Congo, killing at least 15 peacekeepers.
The UN security council said the peacekeepers, all from neighbouring Tanzania, were killed in the North Kivu province late on Thursday, alongside five Congolese soldiers, with 53 wounded.
UN chief Antonio Guterres called it a heinous act.
“I condemn this attack unequivocally,” Mr Guterres said. “These deliberate attacks against UN peacekeepers are unacceptable and constitute a war crime.”
Heather Nauert, spokeswoman for the US state department, said Washington was “appalled by the horrific act”.
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.
DRC’s huge eastern region has long been racked by violence, but fighting between government soldiers and militia groups, and inter-ethnic clashes, have increased significantly this year.
North Kivu province, which borders Uganda and Rwanda, has experienced a particular rise in killings and kidnappings between rival ethnic groups.
The UN in October declared a level 3 emergency in DRC, which is a status afforded to the conflicts in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
The UN’s peacekeeping force in DRC said its operating base at Semuliki, North Kivu, was attacked by “suspected ADF elements”.
The ADF is a Ugandan Muslim rebel group, 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,” the head of the UN’s force, Maman Sidikou, said while vowing to bring the attackers to justice.
Mr Guterres said UN peacekeepers must be safe to operate in the DRC.
“I call on the DRC authorities to investigate this incident and swiftly bring the perpetrators to justice,” he said. “There must be no impunity for such assaults, here or anywhere else.”
Some those wounded in the attack are in critical condition, while military reinforcements have arrived on the scene.
The UN’s 18,000-member force has suffered scores of attacks since its establishment in the country, a vast, mineral-rich but chronically unstable nation home to myriad warring groups and ethnic groups.
The ADF was blamed for an ambush on UN peacekeepers in the country’s east in October, killing two and wounded 12.
The militants have been accused by Kinshasa and the UN mission of killing more than 700 people in the Beni region since October 2014.
Violence plagues North Kivu on a daily basis, with civilians caught between armed groups.
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.
The UN estimates more than four million people are internally displaced in DRC, and 922,000 people were forced to flee their homes last year – more than in any other country.
Mr Guterres warned in October against budget cuts to the UN’s largest and most expensive peacekeeping mission.
The world body’s undersecretary general for peacekeeping, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, said he was outraged by Thursday’s violence.
The country has also faced violence after president Joseph Kabila, who refused to step down after his final term last December, pushed back a new vote until December next year.
Mr Kabila, in power since 2001, told the UN general assembly in September that he was moving “towards credible, transparent and peaceful elections”, but concerns persist that tensions over the vote will become large-scale violence.
“This latest attack highlights the urgency of helping people in need and addressing the volatile situation,” Mr Guterres said.
I condemn this attack unequivocally. These deliberate attacks against UN peacekeepers constitute a war crime ANTONIO GUTERRES UN secretary general