António Guterres, the United Nations secretary-general, has called on the Central African Republic to investigate the incident and bring those responsible for the recent attack on a UN peacekeepers’ vehicle to justice
“The secretary-general strongly condemns the attack by the Central African Presidential Guard on the vehicle of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) in Bangui on Monday, in which ten unarmed, newly arrived Egyptian peacekeepers were wounded. The secretary-general stresses that attacks on UN peacekeepers can constitute a war crime. He calls on the CAR authorities to spare no effort to investigate and immediately bring those responsible for this unacceptable attack to justice,” said Guterres’ spokesman, Stephane Dujarric.
Recall that ten UN peacekeepers from Egypt were injured on Monday in a shootout with the CAR presidential guard. According to the MINUSCA version, the Guards opened fire without warning on the UN detachment at the international airport in the CAR capital Bangui. While retreating, the peacekeepers’ bus hit a woman who later died. For his part, head of state spokesman Albert Yaloke Mokpeme said that the guards of CAR head Faustin-Arkange Touadera opened fire on the Egyptian UN peacekeepers only after a warning signal and due to the fact that the military came too close to the presidential palace.