UN Peacekeeper Killed, Another Injured in Sudan’s Darfur

A United Nations peacekeeper was killed and another injured yesterday in an attack by an armed gang in Nyala, the state capital of South Darfur.

The peacekeeper, from Bangladesh’s Formed Police Unit, lost his life when a gang surrounded and fired at the staff in the mission’s policing center inside the Otash camp for internally displaced persons, the UN said in an e-mailed statement.

Thirty-eight UN peacekeepers have died due to hostile action in the western Sudanese region since the peacekeeping force was deployed on Dec. 31, 2007, the UN said.

Insurgents in Darfur took up arms in 2003, accusing President Umar al-Bashir’s government of neglecting the region. The conflict has led to the deaths of as many as 300,000 people, mainly due to illness and starvation, and forced about 2.7 million to flee their homes, according to UN estimates. The Sudanese government has put the death toll at about 10,000.

To contact the reporter on this story: Salma El Wardany in Cairo at selwardany@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Shaji Mathew at shajimathew@bloomberg.net