Three more UN peacekeepers have been found dead after an attack on a convoy in the Central African Republic, UN officials said Tuesday, bringing the death toll to four.
The UN’s MINUSCA mission, which had earlier announced the death of one peacekeeper, said it was “deeply saddened to confirm that three of the four peacekeepers that were missing in action since yesterday’s attack have been found dead.”
The fourth peacekeeper remains missing after the attack Monday evening.
Eight attackers were killed in the crossfire, MINUSCA added, referring to anti-Balaka Christian militias whose confrontation with pro-Muslim rebels plunged the country into a three-year civil war in 2013.
The convoy was attacked near Yogofongo village, more than 470 kilometres (290 miles) east of the capital Bangui, close to the border with Democratic Republic of Congo, a MINUSCA statement said.
“One Cambodian peacekeeper was killed and eight peacekeepers were injured, including one Cambodian and seven Moroccans,” it said, before the bodies of the three others were discovered.
“The perpetrators of the attack fled into the bush.”
Killing a UN peacekeeper is considered a war crime, MINUSCA spokesman Herve Verhoosel told AFP, saying the convoy comprised police and UN military staff.
The UN sent a helicopter and soldiers to secure the area and search for the missing, while the wounded were evacuated to Bangui, the statement added.
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