DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — A "large number" of United Nations peacekeepers have been killed and wounded in an attack in eastern Congo, the U.N. peacekeeping chief said Friday.
Jean-Pierre Lacroix said he was "outraged" by Thursday night's attack in North Kivu province. He said on Twitter that medical evacuations were ongoing from the scene. He did not identify the attackers.
The U.N. 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.
Radio Okapi, which is linked to the peacekeeping mission known as MONUSCO, reported that peacekeepers on Thursday repelled an attack by fighters with the Allied Democratic Forces rebel group on a U.N. base in the Beni area. The base is home to the peacekeeping mission's rapid intervention force, which has a rare mandate to go on the offensive.
Rebels have killed 14 peacekeepers and injured more than 40 in an attack on a United Nations base in east Congo.
The blast hit the Indian peacekeepers while they were on a morning run in the western neighbourhood of Keyshero in Goma city, the mission added.
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.