Rwandan UN peacekeeper kills four colleagues in CAR

A RWANDAN United Nations (UN) peacekeeper in the Central African Republic (CAR) has shot dead four of his colleagues and wounded eight others at their base before being gunned down himself, military sources have said.

The UN said it was opening an investigation into the killings, which it called the worst such incident to hit the peacekeeping mission in the country since it was deployed in September 2014.

“A Rwandan soldier picked up his gun and killed his (four) colleagues before being felled. There were five dead and eight injured,” said a source close to the MINUSCA mission at the weekend.

The shooting happened at the Rwandan contingent’s base in the capital, Bangui, and the reasons for the violence remain unknown, said a CAR military officer on condition of anonymity.

Rwandan military officials were unavailable for comment. Known by its French acronym of MINUSCA, the mission was deployed last year following interreligious clashes that claimed thousands of lives. 

The force comprises 10,800 troops drawn from Burundi, Cameroun, Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Rwanda, Morocco, Senegal, Pakistan, and Indonesia.