The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed \u201coutrage\u201d at an ambush in South Darfur on Saturday morning, that left seven Tanzanian peacekeepers dead and 17 other injured.<\/p>\n
However Unamid has said that it will not allow the deadly attacks on its peacekeepers to deter it from its mission.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Radio Dabanga from Khartoum, Unamid spokesman Chris Cycmanick said that \u201cat this time, we are still not certain exactly which group carried out the attack.\u201d<\/p>\n
What Cycmanick could confirm is that the ambush occurred about 25 kilometres west of the Mission\u2019s Khor Abeche base. \u201cThe Unamid patrol was a relatively small one. It was ambushed by a large group, so we were completely outnumbered. We came under heavy fire from machine guns and possibly from rocket-propelled grenades.\u201d<\/p>\n
The beleaguered patrol was extracted by reinforcements sent from Unamid\u2019s Khor Abeche and Manawashi sites. \u201cThe seven dead are from Tanzania,\u201d said Cycmanick. \u201cThe 17 injured peacekeepers are at our hospital in Nyala. We are not reporting on their nationalities or the extent of their injuries until we have contacted their countries\u2019 missions in New York so that their families can be notified.”<\/p>\n
The Secretary-General expressed his sympathies \u201cto the families of the fallen peacekeepers, the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania and to all Unamid personnel\u201d. Ban Ki-moon also said that he \u201cexpects that the Government of Sudan will take swift action to bring the perpetrators to justice\u201d.<\/p>\n
Joint Special Representative Mohamed Ibn Chambas visited the wounded peacekeepers at Unamid\u2019s hospital in Nyala to provide encouragement and support.<\/p>\n
Cycmanick: \u201cUnamid will not allow the attacks of the past weeks to deter it from its mission in Darfur. We will of course work with the authorities and try to find out who was behind this. Our work will continue and we will continue with patrols, assist with humanitarian aid and push the peace process forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever we have an incident like this, we count on the local authorities to assist us with the investigation. Ultimately it\u2019s the responsibility of the government to arrest and apprehend these people and make sure that they are prosecuted. Any time something like this happens, we must work with all parties, and that includes the government, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cycmanick explains that the injured are in good hands at Unamid\u2019s level-three hospital facility. \u201cWe are capable of handling trauma patients and do fairly extensive surgery. If it is more severe, we can medevac a patient to a higher level facility, but all 17 injured from Saturday\u2019s incident are currently being treated in Nyala,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n
News photo: The shock of their ordeal is clearly refelcted in the eyes of some of the injured peacekeepers at Unamid hospital in Nyala (by Albert Gonz\u00e1lez Farran\/UNAMID)<\/em><\/p>\n