Africa

Africa

Four UN peacekeepers killed by mine in Abyei

02 August 2011 21:37 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A landmine on Tuesday killed four Ethiopian UN peacekeepers and badly wounded seven others on patrol in the disputed Sudanese territory of Abyei, the UN said, APA reports quoting AFP.
Most of the 4,200 Ethiopian troops in Abyei have been in the territory on the border between north and South Sudan for less than a week.
The Khartoum government, whose forces had occupied the village where the explosion occurred, has signed the Ottawa treaty banning the use of anti-personnel mines.
A UN peacekeeping spokesman said the seven injured had been airlifted to Kadugli, main city in the Sudanese state of South Kordofan where there is a UN medical facility.
The landmine detonated in the village of Mabok, which is southeast of the territory’s main town of Abyei.
The village had been occupied by north Sudanese forces.
The UN Security Council approved the sending of the Ethiopian peacekeeping force to Abyei on June 27 in a bid to douse tensions ahead of southern Sudan’s split from the north.
The Ethiopian peacekeepers were to monitor the withdrawal of north Sudan troops who occupied Abyei on May 21. More than 100,000 people fled the territory, mainly to southern Sudan, after the offensive.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was "saddened" by the deaths.
"The secretary general expresses his deepest condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of those killed, as well to the government of Ethiopia," said UN spokesman Martin Nesirky.
"He also expresses his concern for the well-being of the seven other peacekeepers who were injured in the explosion."