Attack on convoy leaves six civilians dead

1 Dec 2008

Attack on convoy leaves six civilians dead

6 August 2008 –A civilian convoy with seven vehicles was attacked on Monday, leaving six dead and 28 wounded, the joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) reported today.

According to UNAMID the seven Sudanese civilian vehicles were travelling from Nyala to El Fasher in North Darfur when they were ambushed by unknown men on camels, suspected to be Janjaweed militia.

UNAMID helicopters evacuated eight of the wounded to a private hospital in El Fasher, with the bulk of the remaining casualties being evacuated to Nyala.

The mission also reports that more than 170 Gambian soldiers arrived in El Fasher yesterday to take over security duties at UNAMID compounds.

Meanwhile, the remaining personnel from an Egyptian engineering company are expected to arrive in El Fasher on 12 August.

Last week the Security Council extended UNAMID’s mandate by 12 months until the end of July 2009.

Since taking over from an AU peace monitoring mission in the strife-torn region of western Sudan at the start of this year, UNAMID has deployed just under 10,000 uniformed personnel, well short of the 26,000 troops and police officers expected when the force reaches full capacity.

(UN News Centre)