Nigerian UN peacekeeper killed in Darfur
Tuesday, 07 Oct 2008 13:52
A Nigerian United Nations peacekeeper has been killed in an ambush in Darfur
A Nigerian United Nations (UN) peacekeeper has been killed in Sudan's western region of
Darfur, a spokesman has confirmed.
The man died when between 40 and 60 gunmen ambushed a patrol from the joint
African Union-UN peacekeeping mission, north of Nyala on Monday afternoon.
The death brings the number of UN staff killed since the launch of the joint mission in December to ten.
"About 75 kilometres north of Nyala, they came into an ambush by unknown armed attackers. They were fired at. They replied," Kemal Saiki told the AFP news agency.
"The attackers withdrew but in this firefight we had one of our peacekeepers wounded. We arranged for him to be evacuated by helicopter but he died before he could be evacuated."
One of the gunmen is also reported to have been wounded, captured and handed over to the police.
There is currently no information available regarding the identity of the attackers or their motives.
The ambush came on the same day that the new head of UN peacekeeping, Alain Le Roy, arrived in Sudan.