UN peacekeeper killed in assault on helicopter in DR Congo
UN peacekeeper killed in assault on helicopter in DR Congo
A United Nations peacekeeper from South Africa was killed and one other wounded in an assault on their helicopter in jap Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday, the organisation mentioned.
The plane got here underneath hearth at round 3:00 pm (1200 GMT) throughout a flight to Goma, the provincial capital of Nord-Kivu province, the place it was capable of land, a spokesman advised AFP.
The supply of the fireplace that struck the helicopter was not but identified and its exact location had but to be decided, mentioned Amadou Ba, a spokesman for the UN mission within the DRC (MONUSCO).
South Africa’s army additionally confirmed the incident.
“An Oryx helicopter got here underneath hearth in Goma, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Sunday February 5, 2023,” the South African Nationwide Defence Drive (SANDF) mentioned in a press release.
“A crew member was fatally shot, one other suffered accidents however managed to proceed flying the chopper and landed safely at Goma Airport.
“The SANDF is within the technique of informing members of the family of the troopers who have been concerned on this unlucky incident.”
MONUSCO chief Bintou Keita mentioned she “strongly condemns this cowardly assault on an plane bearing the UN emblem”, including that “assaults in opposition to peacekeepers can represent a struggle crime”.
– Raging battle –
On March 29, 2022, eight UN peacekeepers — six Pakistanis, one Russian and one Serb — have been killed when their helicopter crashed over a fight zone between the Congolese military and M23 rebels.
Militias have plagued the mineral-rich jap DRC for many years, a lot of them a legacy of regional wars that flared through the Nineteen Nineties and the early 2000s.
Since November 2021, the M23 insurgent group has seized chunks of territory and are available inside miles of the east’s predominant industrial hub Goma.
East African leaders known as Saturday for a right away ceasefire in jap DRC, at a rare summit known as to search out methods of calming the raging battle.
The talks have been hosted in Burundi by the seven-nation East African Group (EAC), which is main mediation efforts to finish the combating within the huge central African nation.
The resurgent M23 has taken management of swathes of land within the mineral-rich east and combating is constant regardless of a peace roadmap hammered out in Angola final July, and the deployment of an East African Group pressure in November.
The DRC is awash with minerals and treasured stones, however the many years of struggle and persistent mismanagement imply that little of the huge wealth trickles all the way down to the inhabitants of some 100 million.
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