United Nations: The Indian peacekeeper who was injured in fresh firing in the troubled Malakal region in South Sudan two days ago was today identified as Lieutenant Colonel Krovvidi Dinakar.
Sources told PTI that Dinakar received a graze bullet injury in the vertex of his head during the cross-firing outside of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) compound in Malakal on Thursday but is under medical care and is in stable condition.
An UNMISS spokeswoman said over phone from South Sudan that there was firing by the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLM/A) in the vicinity of the UNMISS camp in Malakal and "lot of stray bullets" landed into the compound, inflicting the injury to the Indian peacekeeper.
She added that the peacekeeper received medical care at a hospital also run by Indian military personnel.
A day after the attack that comes just a day before the UN's commemoration of the International Day of Peacekeepers, the world body's peacekeeping chief?expressed "regret" over the lack of progress in achieving a political solution in the troubled nation.
UN's Head of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations Herve Ladsous said that the escalating violence in South Sudan over the past few weeks is "extremely sad".
He expressed concern that the situation will get worse since it is the beginning of the rainy season and the warring sides will try to consolidate their positions.
"I have to regret that indeed a political solution is not making any progress," Ladsous said when asked whether the Secretary General should push for a political settlement in South Sudan given the deteriorating situation.
"There is the need for the international community to take a measure of the drama that has been unfolding for 18 months and made tens of thousands of victims with no political perspective in sight," he said.
He added that the "priority should be more than ever" to finding a political solution to the crisis.
India's Ambassador to the UN Asoke Mukerji said given the deteriorating situation in South Sudan, it had been predicted that peacekeepers serving there will face "more and more problems of this kind".
He said it is important that the Security Council takes urgent action to stop the fighting.
Five Indian peacekeepers, including a Lieutenant Colonel, were killed in South Sudan in April, 2013 when their UN convoy was ambushed by about 200 attackers near Jonglei State.
