Three Senegalese peacekeepers killed in Sudan's Darfur

Reuters
UNAMID peacekeepers patrol as a delegation of Ambassadors of European Union to Sudan visits a women development program centre funded by World Food Programme (WFP) at Shagra village in North Darfur October 18, 2012. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Three peacekeepers from Senegal were killed and one injured in Sudan's Darfur region on Sunday when armed men attacked their convoy, the United Nations said. Law and order has collapsed in much of Darfur, where mainly African tribes took up arms in 2003 against the Arab-led government in Khartoum, which they accuse of discriminating against them. One of the world's largest peacekeeping forces, a joint African Union/United Nations operation known as UNAMID, has been deployed in the region since 2007. "All too often UNAMID peacekeepers are attacked and killed in the line of duty, while helping the Sudanese bring peace to Darfur. These attacks are unacceptable," a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement. "The secretary-general calls on the government of Sudan to bring those responsible to justice," the spokesman said. Violence has surged since January as government forces, rebels and Arab tribes, armed by Khartoum early in the conflict, fight over resources and land. Peacekeepers are often attacked when they try to find out what is happening on the ground.