Monday, December 11, 2017

14 killed, 40 injured in the ‘worst attack on UN peacekeepers in recent history’


14 killed, 40 injured in the ‘worst attack on UN peacekeepers in recent history’



14 killed, 40 injured in the ‘worst attack on UN peacekeepers in recent history’
MONUSCO Blue Helmet peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo look on from a United Nations truck in Goma in November 2016. Rebels killed 14 U.N. Tanzanian peacekeepers, and injured at least 40 during a raid in what the U.N. is calling the worst attack on U.N. peacekeepers in recent history. (2016 file photo/Eduardo Soteras//AFP/Getty Images) 


Islamist rebels killed 14 United Nations Tanzanian peacekeepers, and injured at least 40 during a raid in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in what the U.N. is calling the worst attack on U.N. peacekeepers in recent history.
During the three-hour fight, rebels fired rocket-propelled grenades at U.N. forces. The attack happened late Thursday at the Company Operating Base in the town of Semuliki. Officials are blaming Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) for the attack on MONUSCO (the UN Stabilization Mission in the DRC).
With about 19,000 peacekeepers, MONUSCO is the largest and most expensive U.N. peacekeeping effort.
Years of warfare have resulted in numerous massacres throughout the region, making it one of the most volatile and dangerous. For decades, 30 to 60 rebel groups have battled for control of the mineral-rich region of Eastern DRC, but violence has escalated in the past months, amid political tensions caused by President Joseph Kabila’s refusal to step down.

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