UN peacekeeper killed in attack in DRC as East Africa leaders renew call for ceasefire

A United Nations peacekeeper from South Africa was killed in an attack on a helicopter in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Sunday (5 February), just as East African regional leaders have renewed their call for an immediate ceasefire by all sides involved in the bloody conflict.
The UN aircraft came under fire during a flight to Goma, the provincial capital of Nord-Kivu province, but the source of the fire that struck the helicopter was not yet known, said Amadou Ba, a spokesman for the UN mission in the DRC (MONUSCO). A crew member was fatally shot in the attack, while another suffered injuries but still managed to land safely at Goma Airport. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Congolese authorities “to investigate this heinous attack and swiftly bring those responsible to justice,” his spokesman said in a statement. In March 2022, eight UN peacekeepers — six Pakistanis, one Russian and one Serb — were killed when their helicopter crashed over a combat zone between the Congolese army and M23 rebels.
This comes as leaders of the regional East African Community (EAC) bloc called Saturday (4 February) for an “immediate ceasefire by all parties”, according to a communique issued at the end of their meeting at a summit in Burundi’s capital. The conflict in eastern DRC pits the country’s military against the M23 rebel group that UN experts and Western powers accuse Rwanda of supporting, a claim which Kigali denies. The M23 rebel group has seized large areas of eastern DRC in a rapid onslaught since 20 October that has threatened the provincial capital, Goma. The latest EAC meeting was the latest diplomatic effort to try to end the insurgency, which has displaced at least 520,000 people in eastern DRC.