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Join on Telegram Rabat – A Moroccan peacekeeper from the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) was fatally wounded in a shootout, on Saturday, May 13, Moroccan agency Maghreb Arab Press (MAP) reported. The report is based on a source close to the Moroccan Royal Armed Forces (FAR).
The deceased was shot after an unidentified armed group attacked the FAR checkpoint located in downtown Bangassou, in Central African Republic (CAR).
The latest attack comes less than a week after Moroccan and Cambodian peacekeepers were ambushed on the Rafai-Bangassou road, 220 km south-east of the town of Bria, in CAR.
The attack led to the death and injury of 12 Moroccan and Cambodian peacekeepers. According to FAR, nine other Moroccan soldiers were injured during this same attack. One remains in serious condition. The soldiers were part of an engineering unit that was assisting in the construction of roads, bridges and other infrastructure.
On Thursday, the remains of a Moroccan peacekeeper killed in the incident was identified and repatriated to Morocco.
This is not the first time peacekeepers have been targeted in the Central African Republic.
In January 2017, two Moroccan members of FAR squad of the MINUSCA were killed in an armed attack near the town of Bria, on the northeast of the capital Bangui.
MINUSCA, established in 2014 in response to the country’s ongoing civil war, has deployed more than 12,000 troops to protect civilians from the repercussions of violence between Christian and Muslim sects.
