A Rwandan soldier working as a U.N. peacekeeper in the Central African Republic turned a gun on his colleagues early Saturday, killing four and injuring eight others before killing himself, the Rwandan military said.
The shooting happened at
the Rwandan peacekeepers' headquarters in the Central African Republic's
capital of Bangui at about 5:45 a.m.
Like
the gunman, all 12 of those killed or hurt in the shooting were members
of the Rwandan military, serving as U.N. peacekeepers in Bangui.
"Investigations
have immediately commenced to establish the motive behind this
deplorable shooting of his ... colleagues," said Brig. Gen. Joseph
Nzabamwita, a spokesman for the Rwandan military.
The
peacekeeping operation in the landlocked Central African Republic, one
of the world's poorest nations, stems from political violence that began
in 2013.
France
and African nations sent peacekeepers after a coalition of mostly
Muslim rebels ousted President Francois Bozize in March 2013. Christian
and Muslim militias continued to battle for control before a tentative
political transition began.
The
violence prompted a humanitarian crisis, as hundreds of thousands of
people fled their homes. Some sought refuge in neighboring countries,
but many others were internally displaced, living in makeshift camps.
After
the initial wave of peacekeepers, the United Nations in 2014 formally
established a U.N. peacekeeping force of up to 11,800 troops, a force to
which Rwanda contributes.
The United
Nations warned in May that the Central African Republic was "quickly
becoming the largest forgotten humanitarian crisis of our time," with
some 60% of the population of 4.6 million still in need of aid,
including nearly 900,000 people forcibly displaced by conflict.
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