22 June 2010 -- The Security Council has joined the chorus of United Nations condemnation of yesterday’s ambush by unknown assailants in Darfur in which three soldiers serving with the African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force were killed and a fourth was seriously wounded.

More than 20 gunmen opened fire without warning on the blue helmets as they were providing security to civilian engineers working near the West Darfur village of Nertiti, according to UNAMID.

The soldiers, all from Rwanda, returned fire but in the ensuing hour-long firefight three were slain. Three assailants were also killed and the others escaped.

In a statement to the press issued by Mexico, which holds the rotating Council presidency this month, the 15-member panel voiced concern that yesterday’s attack occurred little more than a month after two Egyptian peacekeepers serving with UNAMID were killed in South Darfur.

“The members of the Security Council expressed their condolences to the families of those killed in the attacks as well as to the Government of Rwanda,” the statement said. “They encouraged the Government of Sudan to ensure that all the perpetrators are swiftly brought to justice and stressed that there must be an end to impunity for those that attack peacekeepers.”

Yesterday both the mission and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued statements deploring the killing and stressing that UNAMID would not be deterred by the attack from carrying out its mandate to try to bring peace and security to the war-wracked region of western Sudan.

Twenty-seven UNAMID peacekeepers – all either soldiers or police officers – have now been killed since the start of 2008, when the mission took over duties from a previous AU operation.

(UN News Service)