The deadliest attack on UN peacekeepers since 1993, killing 15 MONUSCO personnel in the DRC's North Kivu region.
Key Facts
- UN peacekeepers killed
- 15
- UN peacekeepers wounded
- 53
- Date of attack
- December 7, 2017
- Previous deadliest UN incident
- 24 Pakistani peacekeepers killed in Somalia, 1993
- Attacking group
- Allied Democratic Forces (ADF)
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
The Allied Democratic Forces, an armed insurgent group active in the North Kivu region bordering Uganda and Rwanda, had been conducting a sustained campaign of violence in the area. The Semuliki region was a flashpoint amid ongoing instability, and MONUSCO maintained an operating base there as part of the UN stabilization mission in the DRC.
On December 7, 2017, ADF militants carried out a highly coordinated assault on a MONUSCO operating base in Semuliki, Beni Territory, North Kivu. The attack killed fifteen UN peacekeeping personnel and wounded 53 others, making it one of the ADF's deadliest strikes and the single worst loss of UN peacekeepers in over two decades.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the attack as the worst against UN peacekeepers in the organization's recent history. The assault intensified international scrutiny of the security situation in eastern DRC and highlighted the persistent threat posed by the ADF insurgency to both civilian and peacekeeping populations in the North Kivu region.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent
Side B
1 belligerent