An international peacekeeper was shot dead by unknown gunmen in an eastern part of Sudan’s Darfur region, the joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping mission (UNAMID) said.

The killing brings the total number of peacekeepers killed in Darfur since 2007 to 44, a UNAMID spokesman said.

War broke out in Darfur in 2003 when rebels took up arms against the central government, accusing Khartoum of neglecting the remote region and marginalizing its ethnic minorities.

Despite the presence of the world’s largest peacekeeping mission, fighting between Sudan’s army and rebels has continued since then, alongside banditry and tribal clashes.

UNAMID said one of its peacekeepers was shot dead in the early morning on Friday near Muhajeria in East Darfur state. Two other peacekeepers were wounded, it said in a statement. It did not give the nationalities of the victims.

UNAMID said it was investigating the incident in coordination with the Sudanese government.

In December, an international peacekeeper killed three other peacekeepers before killing himself in Darfur.

Agencies