UNSC Extends Condolences to Morocco

The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the attack against a convoy of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic  (MINUSCA) on 4 January 2017 around the town of Obo, in which two Moroccan peacekeepers were killed.

The members of the Security Council expressed their deepest condolences and sympathy to the families of the peacekeepers killed, to the Government of Morocco and to MINUSCA, a statement from the UN Security Council said.

The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms all attacks and provocations against MINUSCA by armed groups.

They underlined that attacks targeting peacekeepers may constitute a war crime and reminded all parties of their obligations under international humanitarian law.

They called on the Central African Republic authorities to swiftly investigate this attack and bring the perpetrators to justice. They stressed that those responsible for the attack shall be held accountable.

“We extend our condolences to the people and government of Morocco,” said on Wednesday Farhan Haq, a UN spokesman at a daily press briefing.

The attack was perpetrated by an unidentified armed group against a patrol of FAR’s contingent, whose mission was to escort a UN logistics convoy, south-east of the town of Bria, the location of FAR’s contingent.

“No claim can justify that individuals direct their grievances against peacekeepers whose presence [here] has no other objective than to help the country to end this cycle of violence,” warned the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the country, Parfait Onanga-Anyanga.

In a statement, Mr. Onanga-Anyanga, who is also the head of UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in CAR, known by its French acronym MINUSCA, added that “every effort” will be made to track down those responsible and bring them to justice.

Source :Morocco World News