UN peacekeepers killed in Ivory Coast ambush

Armed men ambushed and killed seven United Nations peacekeepers trying to protect villagers in Ivory Coast.

More than 40 of their colleagues who stayed to guard the area from further attacks remained in danger, the world body said said.

Hundreds of villagers were fleeing the area near the Liberian border and UN officials said others may have been killed or injured.

Authorities have been unable to confirm any additional casualties because of the remoteness of the area.

UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack “in the strongest possible terms”, saying he was “saddened and outraged” about the deaths of the peacekeepers, all from Niger.

He urged the government of Ivory Coast to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice.

“Their colleagues are still in danger,” Mr Ban said last night. “Even tonight, after the attack, more than 40 peacekeepers remain with the villagers in this remote region to protect them from this armed group.”

Ivory Coast’s deputy defence minister Paul Koffi Koffi said government forces, along with Liberian and UN forces, would launch an operation on June 15 to find the men responsible. He said they were “militia men or mercenaries”.

Mr Koffi Koffi said they could not respond sooner because it would take time to gather equipment and prepare the forces.

An Ivorian cabinet official briefed on the matter said President Alasanne Ouattara requested helicopter gunships from the UN and expected them to arrive by Monday.

Bert Koenders, the UN envoy to the west African nation, said the peacekeepers were part of a patrol south of the town of Tai, an area the UN mission recently reinforced because of threats of attacks against the civilian population.

The ambush involved a large group of armed men, a UN official said.

The mayor of Tai, Desire Gnonkonte, said hundreds of villagers were fleeing the area.

“We are moving in reinforcements as soon as we have daylight,” said Kieran Dwyer, the spokesman for the UN peacekeeping department.

Sylvie van den Wildenberg, acting spokeswoman for the UN mission in Ivory Coast, called it “the first attack of its kind” against peacekeepers in the country.

She said several vehicles were on a reconnaissance patrol near the village of Para on the southern axis of Tai to follow up on “rumours of movement of armed people in the area and threats on the security of civilians”.

“There were several vehicles on the patrol and the leading vehicles were strongly hit,” Ms van den Wildenberg said. “The area is densely forested and very tough terrain.”

Once a stable nation, Ivory Coast, the world’s largest cocoa producer was split into a rebel-controlled north and government-controlled south after an attempted coup sparked civil war in 2002.

A peace deal in March 2007 brought key rebel leaders into the administration and offered hope for a single government after years of foundering accords and disarmament plans.

But the country headed to the brink of civil war after a presidential run-off in early 2011 when then-president Laurent Gbagbo refused to concede defeat after losing to Mr Ouattara, the internationally-recognised winner of the election.

Gbagbo was arrested with the help of UN and French forces in April 2011 and is now facing charges of war crimes at The Hague.