New York - A Moroccan peacekeeper who was missing in the
Central African Republic after an ambush has been found dead, the UN
confirmed Thursday.
Four Cambodian peacekeepers working in the country were also killed
Monday in the guerilla ambush on a UN patrol.
The UN's head of peacekeeping, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, will travel to
the capital city Bangui to take part in a memorial ceremony on
Friday, the spokesman for the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres
said.
The UN called the ambush, which also left nine Moroccan troops and
one Cambodian soldier injured, the "biggest attack in the CAR so
far."
Seven of the wounded soldiers are being treated in Bangui, five for
minor injuries and two for more severe but non-life-threatening
injuries.
The remaining three are at a UN mission hospital in the city of
Bangassou, 47 kilometres east of Bangui.
Eight fighters from the mainly Christian anti-Balaka militia were
killed in the firefight and appear to have initiated the attack on
the convoy near Bangassou.
The Central African Republic is one of the poorest countries in the
world. The diamond-rich but poverty-stricken nation has been in
crisis since late 2012, when inter-religious violence broke out
between Muslim and Christian rebel groups.