Rwanda peacekeeper kills four colleagues in Central African Republic

“The soldier killed himself after shooting his comrades”.

A Rwandan UN peacekeeper in the Central African Republic (CAR) has gunned down four of his colleagues and injured eight others before shooting himself dead, the Rwandan Defense Ministry says. “We suspect terrorism, without ruling out mental illness as the cause”.

A number of soldiers from the Malian Armed Forces have also reportedly been killed and wounded in the incident which remains ongoing, the statement confirmed. The United Nations said it is opening an investigation into the incident that it called “the first of this magnitude since the establishment of the mission in April 2014”.

The mission expressed its condolences to the Government of Rwanda and to the bereaved families and wished an early recovery to the injured peacekeepers, who are now being treated at the MINUSCA hospital in the capital, Bangui. Gen. Joseph Nzabamwita, a spokesman for the Rwandan military.

The Central African Republic, which was formerly governed by France, consistently rates as one of the poorest nations in the world.

Some 850 Rwandan peacekeepers are deployed in the vehicle.

The MINUSCA force comprises 10,800 troops drawn from Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Rwanda, Morocco, Senegal, Pakistan and Indonesia.

Largely Christian “anti-Balaka” – or anti-machete – armed groups were formed to avenge atrocities by the Seleka rebels behind the coup, resulting in waves of killing, rape and pillaging.