Mainly Christian anti-Balaka forces attacked a UN police checkpoint in Central African Republic on Monday, killing one UN peacekeeper and wounding three others, the United Nations said.
The attack took place at the entrance to a camp for displaced people in the southeastern town of Bria after peacekeepers intervened to free two displaced people being held hostage by anti-Balaka forces, the UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
He said the peacekeeper who died and two of the wounded were from Mauritania. The third injured peacekeeper was from Zambia.
Dujarric said the Mauritanian was the 14th peacekeeper killed in Central African Republic this year.
The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the death and injuries, and urged Central African authorities to swiftly investigate the incident and bring the perpetrators to justice, Dujarric said later. Guterres said attacks on UN peacekeepers may constitute war crimes.
The secretary-general reiterated the determination of the UNpeacekeeping mission “to protect civilians and contribute to the stabilisation of the Central African Republic,” the spokesman said.
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