NEW YORK, 13 December 2017 / PRN Africa / -- The head of United Nations peacekeeping operations today thanked individually peacekeepers who fought to hold off an attack on 7 December in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

“Thank you very much for your service. I wish you well,” Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, told each service member, speaking with them at their bedsides at the Nakasero Hospital in Kampala, Uganda.

At least 14 peacekeepers were killed when a UN Stabilization Mission (MONUSCO) Company Operating Base at Semuliki in Beni territory, in DRC's restive eastern North Kivu province, was attacked by suspected Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) elements. It was the worst on UN ‘blue helmets' in recent history.

Mr. Lacroix will meet with families of those killed during a visit to Tanzania later this week.

The bodies were repatriated with honours on Monday, and received by Tanzanian defence and military officials.

The ADF are suspected in the attack. Secretary-General António Guterres has said that the attack constitutes a war crime.

SOURCE UN News Centre