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UN peacekeeper kills 4 colleagues, commits sucide in CAR

09 August 2015 03:37 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A Rwandan UN peacekeeper in the Central African Republic (CAR) has gunned down four of his colleagues and injured eight others before shooting himself dead, the Rwandan Defense Ministry says, APA reports quoting Press TV.

Rwanda Defense Force (RDF) on Saturday announced that “one of its soldiers serving in the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) shot dead four RDF soldiers and injured eight others. The soldier killed himself after shooting his comrades”.

The deadly incident occurred at Rwanda Battalion Headquarters located at 5th Arrondissement SOCATEL M’POKO, in the CAR’s capital Bangui, the official statement further read, adding that the wounded were immediately taken to a nearby hospital.

The victims were serving as peacekeepers under the United Nations’ mission in CAR, and had been deployed there last September amid conflicts in the country.

“Investigations have immediately commenced to establish the motive behind this deplorable shooting of his RDF colleagues. We suspect terrorism without ruling out mental illness to be the cause” said Rwandan defense and military spokesman Brigadier General Joseph Nzabamwita.

In 2013, a coup in CAR ousted president François Bozizé and pushed the country into a conflict that took an unprecedented religious dimension, pitting sections of Christian and Muslim populations against one another.

The largely Christian "anti-balaka" -- or anti-machete -- militias were formed to avenge what they called atrocities by the Seleka rebels behind the coup, resulting in waves of killing, rape, and pillaging ever since.

About a million people have been displaced since Seleka took control of Bangui in March 2013.

Around 2.7 million people, more than half the population, are still in need of aid, while 1.5 million people are facing food insecurity.

In an attempt to restore peace and stability to the former French colony, in August 2014, a transitional government headed by Catherine Samba Panza was formed that included members from different political parties and ethnic groups. Presidential and parliamentary elections in the country are scheduled for October this year.