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Injured Bangladeshi UN peacekeeper dies in Congo

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
One of the six Bangladeshi UN peacekeepers injured in Thursday's militia ambush in the Democratic Republic of the Congo died at a hospital in Bunia, principal town of the trouble-torn Ituri region, early yesterday.
Private (Gunner) Nur Mohammad of Bangladesh Army passed away at 1:00am from a severe bullet-hit in the stomach, an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) release said. Nur hailed from Raipura upazila of Narsingdi. He and five other Bangladeshi blue-helmets were wounded when a local militia waylaid their convoy at around 6:15 Thursday evening in Geti, some 50km off Bunia town in eastern Ituri, according to ISPR and the United Nations peacekeeping mission (Monuc).
Some 40 blue-berets from Bangladesh were travelling in the convoy of two armoured cars and four jeeps that came under the ambush. All of them were later helicoptered to Bunia.
Three of the Bangladeshi troopers suffered bullet injuries and the remaining three were wounded when their jeep turned turtle and fell into a roadside ditch.
The two other bullet-hit blueberets are Corporal (Gunner) Md Saidur Rahman and Private Shawkat Hossain. The three injured in the jeep crash are Sergeant (Fitter) Md Shamsur Rahman, Sergeant (Fitter) Md Rezaul Karim and Private DMT Md Golam Maola.
Maola sustained a head injury. He and Shawkat Hossain have been sent to a South African hospital yesterday for better treatment. According to ISPR, the rest of the wounded are out of danger.
Monuc troopers paid formal military honour to Nur yesterday evening. ISPR said all arrangements have been made to bring back his body home.
The death brings the number of peacekeepers killed in the DRC to 17 since 1999, the year the current UN force known by its French acronym Monuc was established in the former Belgian colony.
Lendu FRPI militia, one of the five ethnic armed groups in Ituri, is believed to have carried out the attack. UN in March said FRPI fighters had kidnapped hundreds of civilians from rival ethnic groups, decapitating some, torturing others and forcing some to work as porters or sex slaves.
A UN combat helicopter was called in and opened fire on the assailants, but no details on the rebel casualties were available from Monuc.
ISPR however said a number of militiamen were injured as the Bangladeshi soldiers counterattacked. As of last night, helicopter gun-ships were carrying on the attack on the rebel militia, it added.
This was the second attack on UN peacekeepers from Bangladesh in the anarchic region. The first ambush on February 25 left nine Bangladeshi troopers dead, the worst single loss suffered by Monuc to date.
Following the February attack, UN Security Council unanimously voted in April to ban arms sales to any recipient in the territory excepting the government army and police.
According to wire services, much of the Ituri district is still under the control of rebel warlords. Militias with backing from Uganda, Rwanda and the Congolese authorities have been doggedly fighting one another in a bid to control the gold and other minerals in the area.
Skirmishes between ethnic Hema UPC and Lendu FRPI militias since 1999 have left over 60,000 civilians killed in the area and forced around 100,000 people to take shelter in disease-infested camps, said wire services.
Monuc, with 16,700 peacekeepers including 1,300 Bangladeshis, is trying to oversee a peace accord, help demobilise rebel groups and assist the current government of President Joseph Kabila in establishing a broad-based democratic regime.
More than 9,000 militiamen including over 3,000 child-soldiers have been disarmed in Ituri under a UN programme launched in September last year and planned for completion in June.