Killing of Minusca peacekeeper in CAR may be a war crime says UN Security Council

Elsa Buchanan

UN peacekeepers stand guard as voters wait outside for the opening of polling stations in Bangui on 14 February 2016 to take part in the country's delayed elections

Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images

The United Nations (UN) has condemned the killing of a Moroccan peacekeeper from the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in the Central African Republic (Minusca) on Sunday (17 April) in the town of Rafai, near the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The UN said that

attacks against peacekeepers may constitute war crimes.

The UN confirmed the peacekeeper was killed by unknown gunmen when he was shot in the town of Rafai, located in the country's south-east Mbomou prefecture, as he was responding to an attack on the nearby village of Agoumar.

CAR militia use rape to punish women suspected of speaking to the enemy

The attack was allegedly carried out by elements of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group led by Joseph Kony that originated in Uganda in the 1980s. The peacekeeper

succumbed to his wounds on Sunday afternoon.

"The secretary-general reiterates that attacks against those who are working towards peace and security in the Central African Republic are unacceptable," the statement said.

"He calls on the newly elected government to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was quoted as saying by his spokesman.

Soldiers from Minusca patrol in the area where sporadic gunfire and improvised barricades closed the access to some districts of Bangui on 10 December 2015.

Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images

Attacks against Minusca are 'war crimes'

Members of the UN Security Council also condemned attacks and provocations against Minusca by armed groups, adding that attacks against peacekeepers may constitute war crimes.

After reminding all parties of their obligations under international humanitarian law, members of the council called on the CAR government to investigate the attack and hold the perpetrators to account.

Council members repeated their support for Minusca to assist President Faustin Archange Touadera's newly-elected government to bring to justice those responsible for the peacekeeper's death. However, the council members insisted Touadera's government bears the primary responsibility to protect its population, and the people of the CAR in their efforts to bring lasting peace and stability to their nation.

Touadera was sworn into office in late March, becoming the first elected leader following years of sectarian violence.

The central African nation

was thrown into chaos in early 2013 when Muslim Seleka rebels toppled the

then-president François

Bozize's government. Christian militias responded to abuses by the Seleka rebels by attacking Muslims.

Nearly one million people were displaced by the violence, which left the country divided along ethnic and religious lines.

Who are the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)?

The LRA rose up against the government in northern Uganda under the leadership of warlord Joseph Kony in the late 1980s and is notorious for having abducted tens of thousands of children to serve as fighters and sex slaves and has killed and wounded thousands of civilians.
Having earned a reputation for carrying out massacres and mutilating civilians, the LRA left Uganda about a decade ago and has roamed across parts of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), South Sudan and CAR since then, eluding efforts to defeat them.
"The LRA is a notoriously brutal force that for decades has attacked civilians across a wide swath of East and Central Africa," said Elise Keppler, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch (HRW).
The most feared commander of the LRA, Dominic Ongwen, was due to start a five-day pre-trial hearing at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague on 21 January.
The 40 year old is charged with 70 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity in northern Uganda, and initial charges focus on alleged crimes committed in 2004, and include murder, torture, enslavement, and pillage as part of attacks on four internally displaced people (IDP)'s camps in Uganda: Pajule, Odek, Abok and Lukodi camps.
In September 2015, the prosecutor added the charges of persecution, sexual and gender-based crimes, conscription and use of child soldiers.