6 peacekeepers and an interpreter killed, while 10 more staffers detained in Yemen
Edith M. Lederer
It’s been a somber week at the end of a difficult year for the United Nations: Six UN peacekeepers were killed in a drone strike in Sudan, a translator died in the custody of South Sudan’s security personnel, and 10 more staff were detained by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
“This is a very worrying trend,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Friday. [AEST time]. “Too often we see that the UN flag no longer provides our colleagues with the protection it should.”
He noted that more than 300 UN personnel, almost all Palestinians, were killed during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and more than 300 were killed during the 10-year peacekeeping mission in Mali. The world’s deadliest mission ends in December 2023.
“UN personnel are there for peace, whether they are humanitarians, peacekeepers or political envoys,” Dujarric said. “They are there for the people. They need to be respected.”
The UN Security Council on Friday condemned the “heinous and deliberate” drone attack on a logistics base in war-torn Sudan’s South Kordofan region on December 13 that killed six Bangladeshi peacekeepers and injured nine others.
The UN’s most powerful body said the attack was a “serious disregard for international law” and reiterated that attacks on peacekeepers could constitute war crimes.
An interpreter working for the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan was also kidnapped from a UN vehicle by local security forces on Monday. Dujarric said the delegation was in contact with South Sudanese authorities to seek his release when it became known that he had died in custody.
South Sudanese police spokesman Saninto Udol said Army Lieutenant Lino Mariak Chol and two other soldiers were arrested after admitting to killing Bol Roch Mayol and revealing the whereabouts of his body. It was found in a residential area on Thursday, Udol said.
Mayol, a South Sudanese national who has worked for the UN mission since its inception in 2011, was taken from a UN vehicle by five South Sudanese soldiers after a routine patrol and taken to a displacement camp on the outskirts of the northern town of Wau. Udol said Mayol’s vehicle stopped on the side of the road after its tire burst.
The UN demanded that those responsible be held accountable.
The UN also had “indefensible” news: Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who control the capital Sanaa and much of the country’s north, detained 10 more UN staff on Thursday, bringing the total to 69.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the move and demanded that the charges be dropped against three UN officials who were recently referred to the Houthi special criminal court.
In late November, the court found 17 men guilty of spying for foreign governments, part of the Houthis’ years-long crackdown on Yemeni personnel working for foreign organizations.
