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A military observer with the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was killed on Monday and his colleague badly wounded when their vehicle hit a landmine at Ikela in Province Orientale.
A spokesman for the mission, Hamadoun Toure, said the dead man was an Algerian colonel aged 48. This was the first such fatality the mission has suffered since its deployment in 1999. The colonel and his colleague, an Indian major, were on a routine patrol, said Toure.
The two were evacuated by a UN plane to Kisangani, 253 km northeast of Ikela. An investigation into the circumstances of the incident has begun. Ikela is on the ceasefire line, and was besieged for 10 months between 1999 and 2000.
The UN mission, which numbers about 3,050 military personnel, has suffered seven fatal casualties - six military and one civilian - from sickness and accidents.
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