The United Nations has instituted a probe committee that will investigate the attack by the ADF militants that killed 15 UN peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) last month and left 43 others wounded.
On December 7, 15 UN peacekeepers deployed in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were targeted and killed following an assault launched by rebels belonging to Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).
The attack in the Beni territory of North Kivu province was termed as one of the worst to have targeted UN peacekeepers in recent history.
The dead peacekeepers who were Tanzanian nationals were under the MONUSCO (United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC) which has been safeguarding the fragile Eastern part of DRC since 2011 from long standing insurgents including ADF rebels.
Read More: ADF Kill 14 in DRC in “Worst” Attack on UN Peacekeepers
Following the attack, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday appointed Dmitry Titov, a Russian national who has worked in UN peacekeeping for long to lead the special investigation that will also look into other attacks against peacekeepers in that area, a UN statement said.
“This special investigation will include a focus on the 7 December attack in Semuliki, in which 15 Tanzanian peacekeepers were killed, 43 wounded and one remains missing,” it said.
The United Nations has said the ambush of the peacekeeping base was carried out by suspected ADF rebels, a shadowy group dominated by radical islamists, one of several armed groups active in the North Kivu region. ADF has terrorised Uganda and DRC for decades.
In 2016, ADF attacked and massacred Congolese in Beni and other parts of DRC.
UN investigators will examine the circumstances surrounding the attacks, evaluate the response of the UN peacekeepers and make recommendations on how to prevent such violence, the UN said.
Two military officers from Tanzania will take part in the investigation. The team will travel to the DRC later this month and to countries in the region.
The attack was the bloodiest against MONUSCO, the UN force deployed in the DR Congo since 1999, and the worst against a UN force since the death of 24 Pakistani peacekeepers in Somalia in June 1993.
DRC’s huge eastern region has long been wracked by violence, but fighting between government soldiers and militia groups, as well as inter-ethnic clashes, has increased in 2017.
North Kivu province, which borders Uganda and Rwanda, has seen a particular uptick in killings and kidnappings between rival ethnic groups.
Since October 2014, the ADF has been accused by Kinshasa and the UN of killing more than 700 people in the Beni region, where last week’s attack also took place.
In a counter operation to neutralize the rebels, Uganda’s army, UPDF launched air and artillery strikes against the ADF in DRC in late December last year, killing over 100 of its fighters in a joint operation with the FARDC, DRC’s army.
Read More: Over 100 Militants Killed in UPDF Strikes on ADF Bases in DRC
