Four Nigerian peacekeepers were killed
and eight wounded in an ambush in
Sudan’s western Darfur region, the
international peacekeeper force UNAMID
said on Wednesday.
“They were killed last night some 2 km (1.2
miles) from our regional headquarters in El
Geneina. They came under fire from all
sides,” a spokesman for UNAMID said.
UNAMID, the world’s largest peacekeeping
mission, was deployed by the United Nations
and the African Union in the arid western
territory after fierce fighting in 2003 which
forced hundreds of thousands of people to
flee their homes.
A total of 42 peacekeepers have been killed
since UNAMID was set up, according to the
force.
Violence in Darfur, where mostly non-Arab
rebels took up arms against the government
in Khartoum, has ebbed from a 2003-04 peak
but international efforts to broker peace have
failed to end the conflict.
The International Criminal Court has issued
arrest warrants for Sudan’s President Omar
Hassan al-Bashir and other officials to face
charges of masterminding atrocities in the
region where Sudanese troops and allied Arab
militias have sought to crush the rebellion.
Estimates of the death count vary widely.
Sudan’s government signed a Qatar-
sponsored peace deal with an umbrella
organisation of smaller rebel groups last year,
but the major factions refused to join.
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