UN chief condemns attack on UNAMID

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned "in the strongest terms" the latest attacks against a peacekeeping mission in Sudan's Darfur region, which left a peacekeeper dead. "The Secretary-General was deeply disturbed to learn of another attack today by unidentified armed assailants on a convoy of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) near Kabkabiya, North Darfur, in which one Rwandan peacekeeper was killed," said a statement issued here by Ban's spokesperson on Sunday night. Ban expressed his sincere condolences to the family of the fallen peacekeeper, and to the government of the Republic of Rwanda. He expected the Sudanese government to take swift action to bring the perpetrators of this and previous attacks on UNAMID to justice. Established by the UN Security Council in 2007, UNAMID is in charge of, among other tasks, the protection of civilians and helping maintain security for humanitarian assistance in Darfur, where fighting between rebel groups and government forces and allied militia since 2003 has led to the deaths of about 300,000 people and caused nearly two million more to be displaced.