UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has strongly condemned the killing of a Pakistani peacekeeper serving the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A statement issued late on Tuesday by the Secretary-General's Spokesman Martin Nesirky said the peacekeeper was killed during an attack by "unidentified assailants" on a UN military convoy in South Kivu province, in the country's east, bordering Rwanda and Burundi.
There were no details on the exact location or nature of the attack. The UN mission, known as MONUSCO, is investigating. Pakistan has more than 3,000 peacekeepers in the DRC, making it one of the largest contributors to a force that has 19,000 uniformed personnel.
The statement said, "The Secretary-General offers his sincerest condolences and sympathy to the family of the victim, and to the Government of Pakistan. "The Secretary-General calls on the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo to bring the perpetrators of this crime to justice."
The DRC has endured armed conflicts for more than two decades, including the latest eruption of violence in April 2012. The rebel group M23 captured several cities in November, demanding the government fully implement a 2009 peace deal designed to integrate rebels into the Congolese army. The UN Security Council authorised a special intervention brigade in March to reinforce MONUSCO. The UN tasked those troops, numbering about 3,000, with preventing the expansion of armed groups such as M23, as well as neutralising and disarming them, in a bid to stabilise the eastern DRC.
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