United Nations condemns shooting of peacekeeper

JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN » The United Nations condemned a “direct attack” on its peacekeeping mission in South Sudan after a government soldier shot and wounded a Nepalese peacekeeper Saturday.

The shooting came three days after South Sudan’s rival sides signed a peace deal to end the five-year civil war that has killed tens of thousands of people.

The South Sudanese soldier fired into the air near a U.N. convoy in the town of Yei before shooting at one of the vehicles, the U.N. statement said, adding that the peacekeepers could not return fire because of the risk of hitting civilians.

The U.N. mission chief, David Shearer, called the attack “unacceptable” and urged South Sudan’s government to bring its forces under control. Government troops earlier Saturday fired about 50 shots close to the U.N. base in Yei, the U.N. statement said.

South Sudan military spokesman Lul Ruai Koang said that the government takes responsibility for the shooting and that someone from the national security service, not the regular army, had opened fire.

“I want to make it crystal clear it was an individual act and not the SPLA. This doesn’t represent the SPLA or national security,” he said.

The shooter has been arrested, he added.

The attack on the convoy came a day after fighting broke out in Central Equatoria state, the first reported clashes since the peace deal, with the opposition accusing government troops of storming bases in Lainya and Kajo Keji counties.