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Two UN peacekeepers die of malaria

    NAIROBI

    Two Bolivian peacekeeping soldiers died of malaria over the weekend, the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, MONUC, reported on Monday.

    Sergeant Maldonado Soto Juan, 26, died on Friday at the Number One Military Hospital in Pretoria, South Africa, to where he had been evacuated for intensive care.

    Private Carlos Linares Ururi, 31, died on Sunday while he was being evacuated by plane from the Centre Medical de Kinshasa to the same hospital.

    Both men were part of the Bolivian contingent of 200 troops deployed to Boende, in the northwestern province of Equateur, in early November.

    "All troops are fully briefed upon arrival on prophylaxis measures," Hamadoun Toure, the MONUC spokesman, told IRIN on Tuesday.

    He said that in October, MONUC recorded 180 cases of malaria. "All were cured except these two unfortunate cases. It is sad but the MONUC medical team did whatever they could to save them," he said.

    MONUC had previously lost one other soldier and two military observers, bringing to five the total number of deaths of peacekeeping personnel in the DRC.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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