Fourteen United
Nations peacekeepers were killed and many more were wounded in an attack late
Thursday in eastern Congo, according to the U.N. mission in the country.
The attack appeared to
be the deadliest on peacekeepers since 1993, when 23 were slain in an attack in
Mogadishu, Somalia.
The majority of those
killed and injured in the Congo attack were from Tanzania, according to a U.N.
official in New York, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to relay details
of the attack. The details of the assault remained vague on Friday, with the
top U.N. peacekeeping official writing in a tweet about the incident.
“Outraged by the
attack against MONUSCO in #NorthKivu DRC last evening, where a large number of
UN peacekeepers have been killed & wounded,” wrote Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the
undersecretary general for peacekeeping operations.
A news
release from the peacekeeping mission in Congo, known by the
acronym MONUSCO, said 14 peacekeepers were killed and 53 wounded in Thursday’s
attack.
MONUSCO is the largest and most expensive U.N. peacekeeping
mission in the world, with roughly 19,000 peacekeepers.
In recent months,
violence in eastern Congo has spiked with clashes between rebels and security
forces and inter-communal violence that has left thousands dead and prompted a
new wave of refugees to flee the country.
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