By IINA,
Abuja : Forty five Nigerian soldiers, who died in a horrific accident, were laid to rest at the National Cemetery, in the capital city, Abuja on Friday. The army captain and the 45 soldiers were traveling back to their 243 Battalion, Monguno, from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, after returning from the war-torn Darfur region in Sudan on peace-keeping mission, but had a ghastly auto accident along the Kari/Potiskum – Maiduguri Road in Bauchi State. The soldiers “were returning to their unit in Monguno (Borno state) from Abuja, the federal capital, after serving six months with the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Sudan”, said Lieutenant-General Luka Yussuf.
The soldiers were in a convoy of seven vehicles in northeastern Yobe state last Wednesday when one of them collided with an oncoming petrol tanker near the city of Potiskum, army spokesperson Brigadier-General Emeka Onwuamaegbu said. Several soldiers were also injured, he said. “The military authorities regret this unfortunate incident.
A joint UN-African Union peacekeeping mission has been deployed in western Sudan’s Darfur region, where the death toll from five years of civil war, famine and disease may be up to 300000, according to UN estimates. More than two million people have also been displaced by the conflict which broke out in February 2003 when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated regime and state-backed Arab militias. Last September, seven Nigerian soldiers were among 10 African Union soldiers killed by rebel forces in the troubled region.