UN’s grim week: 6 peacekeepers and an interpreter killed, while 10 more staffers detained in Yemen

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — It’s been a grim week at the end of a tough year for the United Nations: Six U.N. peacekeepers were killed in a drone attack in Sudan. A U.N. interpreter died while in the custody of South Sudan’s security personnel. And 10 more U.N. staff were detained by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

“It’s a very worrying trend,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters Friday. “We see all too often that the U.N. flag — the U.N. emblem — no longer offers the protection that it should to our colleagues.”

As examples, he pointed to more than 300 U.N. staff members killed during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, almost all of them Palestinians, and over 300 personnel killed during the 10-year U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali. The deadliest in the world, that mission ended in December 2023.

“U.N. personnel, whether they are humanitarian, whether they are peacekeepers, whether they’re political envoys, are there for peace,” Dujarric said. “They are there for the people. They need to be respected.”

The U.N. Security Council on Friday condemned “the heinous and deliberate” drone attack on a U.N. logistics base in war-torn Sudan’s South Kordofan region on Dec. 13 that killed six Bangladeshi peacekeepers and injured nine others.

The U.N.’s most powerful body said the attack represents “an egregious disregard for international law.” It called for a swift investigation and for those responsible to be brought to justice, reiterating that attacks against peacekeepers may constitute war crimes.

In what Dujarric called another shocking development, the spokesman said the United Nations condemned the killing of an interpreter working for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan who was taken from a U.N. vehicle on Monday by local security forces.

The U.N. mission was engaging with South Sudanese authorities to gain his release when it was informed that he died in custody, Dujarric said.

Saninto Udol, a South Sudanese police spokesman, said Army Lt. Lino Mariak Chol and two other soldiers were arrested after admitting to the killing of Bol Roch Mayol and disclosing the whereabouts of his body. It was found in a residential area Thursday, Udol said.

Mayol, a South Sudanese national who had worked for the U.N. mission since its inception in 2011, was taken from a U.N. vehicle by five South Sudanese soldiers following a routine patrol to a displacement camp on the outskirts of the northern town of Wau. Mayol’s U.N. vehicle had stopped on the side of a road after getting a flat tire, Udol said.

The U.N. called for those responsible to be held accountable, Dujarric said.

The United Nations also had another piece of “untenable” news: Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who control the capital, Sanaa, and much of the country’s north, detained 10 more U.N. staffers Thursday, bringing the total number being held to 69.

“Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemns their arbitrary detention, calls for their immediate and unconditional release along with dozens of other detainees from nongovernmental organizations, civil society and diplomatic missions,” Dujarric said.

Guterres also demanded that charges against three U.N. staffers who were recently referred to a Houthi special criminal court be dropped.

The court in late November convicted 17 people of spying for foreign governments, part of a yearslong Houthi crackdown on Yemeni staffers working for foreign organizations.

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Associated Press writer Joseph Falzetta in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this report.