Here’s a look at violence against UN peacekeeping forces. This is a selected list of incidents from 1990 to the present.
Facts:
Since 1948, the United Nations has authorized 71 peacekeeping missions around the globe.
The largest of the current 15 missions is in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with more than 22,000 personnel.
Since 1948, 3,654 peacekeepers have been killed in operations.
As of October 2017, there are approximately 91,366 uniformed peacekeeping personnel from 125 countries.
Timeline:
1993 – At least 16 peacekeepers are killed in Cambodia, allegedly by Khmer Rouge guerrillas.
June 5, 1993 – In Mogadishu, Somalia, forces loyal to warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid ambush and kill 23 Pakistani peacekeepers.
September 5, 1993 – Seven peacekeepers from Nigeria are killed in Mogadishu, Somalia, in an ambush by gunmen loyal to Aidid.
May 17, 1994 – Five UN peacekeepers from Nepal are killed in a gun battle in Mogadishu, Somalia.
May 4, 2000 – In Sierra Leone, seven peacekeeper troops from Kenya are killed by rebels.
February 25, 2005 – Seven peacekeepers from Bangladesh are killed in an ambush in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
January 23, 2006 – Rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo kill eight peacekeepers from Guatemala.
June 24, 2007 – Six UN peacekeepers are killed in southern Lebanon by a car bomb.
June 8, 2012 – Armed assailants kill seven peacekeepers in the Ivory Coast.
April 9, 2013 – Five UN peacekeepers from India are killed in South Sudan.
July 13, 2013 – Gunmen ambush a peacekeeping force in the Darfur region of Sudan, killing seven Tanzanian troops.
September 18, 2014 – Five UN peacekeepers from Chad are killed and three others are injured when a UN vehicle hits a homemade bomb in northern Mali.
October 3, 2014 – Nine UN peacekeepers from Niger are killed in an ambush in Mali, when their convoy is attacked near Menaka, in the country’s eastern Gao region, by heavily armed men on motorcycles.
July 2, 2015 – Six UN peacekeepers from Burkina Faso are killed and five others are injured when their convoy is attacked in the West African nation of Mali.
May 29, 2016 – Five UN peacekeepers are killed in an ambush in Mali.
December 1, 2016 – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon issues an apology on behalf of the UN peacekeepers for the cholera epidemic that followed the 2010 earthquake, saying the United Nations did not do enough to prevent the spread of it. Issued as part of an announcement of a new plan to eradicate the disease, the United Nations stopped short of accepting full responsibility for the outbreak that killed at least 10,000.
May 8, 2017 – Five peacekeepers are killed overnight in the Central African Republic near the town of Bangassou by a Christian rebel group.
August 14, 2017 – A total of eight people are killed in two separate attacks on the United Nations mission in Mali. Seven people are killed when armed men attack the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) headquarters in Timbuktu — five MINUSMA security guards, one member of the Mali National Police and one civilian contractor working for MINUSMA. A separate attack takes place against MINUSMA in Douenza, around 130 miles south of Timbuktu, killing one peacekeeper and one Malian national soldier. No claims of responsibility are made, and no concrete link between the two attacks is established.
November 24, 2017 – Four UN peacekeepers and one Malian solider are killed in attacks in Mali. Twenty-one others are injured in the attacks in the Menaka and Mopti regions, including a civilian contractor with MINUSMA and a member of the Malian armed forces.
December 8, 2017 – The UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo says that fifteen peacekeepers were killed and 53 others injured. Mission officials believe the rebel group Allied Democratic Forces carried out the attack. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says it is the “worst attack on UN peacekeepers in the organization’s recent history.”
