A Zambian peacekeeper serving with the United Nations mission in the Central African Republic (CAR) was killed in an attack on Friday in the country’s northeast, the UN announced Saturday. This marks the third fatal assault on peacekeepers in the CAR since the beginning of 2025.
Another Zambian soldier was wounded during the incident when “unidentified armed elements” targeted a peacekeeper patrol in Am-Sissia, Vakaga province, which borders Sudan, a nation currently embroiled in civil war.
The UN mission’s (MINUSCA) Facebook page highlighted a “multiplication of attacks against peacekeepers.” Valentine Rugwabiza, head of MINUSCA, urged the CAR government “to spare no effort to identify the perpetrators of these acts so that they are quickly brought to justice.”
This latest casualty follows other recent attacks on the mission:
Since MINUSCA began its operations in 2014 to stabilize the conflict-ridden nation, approximately 150 blue helmets have lost their lives in the CAR. The 17,000-strong force has ramped up patrols in response to a worsening security situation, according to a February report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The CAR, one of the world’s poorest countries, shares its Vakaga province border with Sudan, which has been in conflict since April 2023 between its regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). A UN experts’ report from June 2024 indicated that the RSF is recruiting new fighters from the CAR and utilizing the country for supply lines outside Sudan. Sudan’s civil war has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and displaced 14 million people, with four million becoming refugees abroad.
While advances by the CAR army, along with allies from Rwanda and mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner group, have improved security in some areas, violence persists, particularly on roads in the country’s northwest and east.
