Moscow (SunstarTV Bureau): Two United Nations peacekeepers were killed after their convoy was ambushed by members of the UPC and anti-Balaka armed groups in southern Central African Republic (CAR), the UN Mission in the country informed on Monday.
“The deceased duo were from a Gabonese and a Moroccan got killed on Monday, 17 kilometers from Bangassou, in the south of the CAR, following the ambush of their convoy by elements of the coalition armed groups,” MINUSCA said in a statement on Twitter.
Earlier this month, two UN peacekeepers were killed in separate targeted attacks in the CAR (Central African Republic).
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed last week that attacks against UN peacekeepers “may constitute a war crime.”
The situation in CAR, one of the poorest countries in the world, has deteriorated in the run-up to the December 27 election. Back then, incumbent President Faustin Archange Touadera accused his main rival and predecessor, Francois Bozize, of plotting a coup and a militias march on the capital Bangui.
The top CAR court barred Bozize, backed by the Coalition of Patriots for Change, from running on ‘morality grounds’. Touadera won a second term, but the outcome still needs to be certified by the constitutional court.
