14 UN peacekeepers killed, 40 wounded in Congo attack

Fourteen peacekeepers have been killed and more than 40 have been wounded in an attack in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, the UN has said.

At least five Congolese soldiers were also killed in Thursday's attack in North Kivu province, United Nations spokesman Farhan Haq said.

The province has remained a hotbed of armed militias, who continue to battle for control over the mineral-rich countryside despite the end of a major war over a decade and a half ago.

'It's a very huge attack, certainly the worst in recent memory,' Haq said, adding that the peacekeepers are mainly from the Tanzanian contingent.

Peacekeepers had repelled an attack by fighters with the Allied Democratic Forces rebel group on a UN base in the Beni area, reported Radio Okapi, which is linked to the peacekeeping mission known as MONUSCO,.

The base is home to the peacekeeping mission's rapid intervention force, which has a rare mandate to go on the offensive.
The radio station, citing military sources, said fighting lasted four hours. It reported that Congolese forces did not intervene because the closest ones were several miles away.

UN Peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said he is 'outraged' by the attack and that medical evacuations are ongoing. He did not identify the attackers.

'Our thoughts and prayers with families and our colleagues in MONUSCO (peacekeeping mission). Reinforcements are on scene and medical evacuations by mission ongoing,' Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping, wrote
The UN peacekeeping mission in Congo is the largest and most expensive in the world and is aimed at calming a number of armed groups in the vast, mineral-rich Central African nation.

Daily Mail/GY