The UN Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) said Tuesday that shots fired by the presidential guard in the capital Bangui injured ten Egyptian peacekeepers.
The incident, which occurred on Monday, was described by the UN as a “deliberate and unspeakable attack” on an Egyptian police contingent that was unarmed at the time and was travelling in a bus labelled “UN.”
According to the UN, members of Egypt’s Constituent Police Unit “came under heavy fire from the presidential guard without prior warning or any response, while they were unarmed.”
The organisation added that the incident occurred approximately 120 meters (yards) from the presidential residence. The bus “hit a woman who lost her life” as it attempted to leave the area, according to MINUSCA, adding that it had “offered its condolences to the victim’s family” who had visited later in the day.
Members of the police unit had arrived at Bangui airport earlier on Monday as part of a regular rotation and troop deployment in CAR. According to Vladimir Monteiro, MINUSCA’s spokesman, they were traveling to their base in a bus clearly marked “with UN initials.”
According to UN figures, the Central African Republic is the world’s second poorest country, and it has been ravaged by a civil war since 2013, though the level of fighting has decreased since 2018.