A peacekeeper was shot dead Friday in an attack on an African Union-UN base in Sudan's Darfur, the mission said, two days after the government announced it regained control of the area from rebels. "In the early morning hours of 19 April, one peacekeeper of the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) was shot dead and two others injured in an attack by unidentified assailants on the mission's team site near Muhagiriya," mission spokeswoman Aicha Elbasri said in a statement.
UNAMID did not release the nationality of the victims but Muhagiriya falls under the jurisdiction of Nigerian peacekeepers. "UNAMID is investigating the events surrounding the incident and working in coordination with (the) government of Sudan to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice, as any attack on international peacekeepers is a crime under international law," Elbasri said.
More than 40 peacekeepers have been killed in hostile action during UNAMID's five-year history and the UN has repeatedly called for perpetrators to be brought to justice However, UN sources have said they were unaware of anybody previously being held accountable in Sudan for killing a peacekeeper. In February a UN panel of experts reported that former members of government militias "have forcibly expressed their discontent with the current government," including through occasional cases of "direct attacks on UNAMID staff and premises".