SUDAN: Darfur militiamen ambushed and killed seven members of a joint UN-African Union (Unamid) peacekeeping mission and wounded 23 others, the United Nations said yesterday.
The Unamid soldiers and police were ambushed on a routine patrol by about 30 vehicles full of armed militia in the Um Haqiba area of north Darfur on Tuesday, according to Unamid spokeswoman in Sudan Shereen Zorba.
It was not immediately clear if the militias were government allies or backed by rebels fighting Khartoum.
At the United Nations in New York, spokeswoman Michèle Montas said the attack lasted two hours and the assailants used heavy weapons.
The ambush is the worst direct attack on Unamid forces since it began work on December 31st.
"The secretary general condemns in the strongest possible terms this unacceptable act of extreme violence against AU-UN peacekeepers in Darfur and calls on the government of Sudan to do its utmost to ensure that the perpetrators are swiftly identified and brought to justice," Ms Montas said.
France, which holds the rotating EU presidency, also condemned the attack and called on all sides to co-operate to establish who was responsible.
The Haqiba area is many hundreds of kilometres away from where Irish troops are based in Chad, a spokesman for the Defence Forces confirmed last night.
He added that, although the scene was significantly removed from the Irish sphere of influence, the incident obviously related to the broader political and military issues associated with the region.
Some 400 Defence Forces personnel are serving in Chad, protecting up to 450,000 people in refugee camps who have fled the conflict in Darfur.
They form part of the European peace enforcement mission (Eufor) in the Chad-Darfur border region.
International experts estimate some 200,000 people have died in the Darfur conflict. - (Reuters)