By Frank Kimboy
IN SUMMARY
For now we can only confirm the death...we will release more details, including the matter of burial arrangements, after the arrival of the body.
Dar es Salaam. A Tanzania People’s Defence Forces (TPDF) officer was killed in a grenade attack in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday.
A TPDF statement identified the officer as Major Khatibu Mshindo, who was with the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC.
Several soldiers were injured in the attack.
The statement said Major Mshindo and other soldiers were at their base when a grenade was lobbed at them by unknown assailants.
The TPDF statement did not give the number of peacekeepers injured in the attack.
However, the international media said three Tanzania soldiers and two South African were wounded.
“A Tanzanian officer was killed, three other Tanzanian soldiers were wounded along with two South Africans,” the mission’s spokesperson Madnodje Mounoubai was quoted saying.
TPDF spokesman Major Erick Komba told The Citizen that they were liaising with the UN to determine when the fallen soldier’s body be brought home.
“For now we can only confirm the death...we will release more details, including the matter of burial arrangements, after the arrival of the body,” he said.
Tanzanian, South African and Malawian troops have been deployed as part of the Force Intervention Brigade, which has a UN mandate to engage in direct fighting against the M23 militia who have been destabilising the east of the DRC.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday condemned the attack.
“The Secretary-General deplores in the strongest terms the killing and wounding of UN peacekeepers,” said a statement issued on Wednesday night by Ban’s spokesperson.
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