Chairperson of the Commission for African Union (AU), Jean Ping, on Tuesday strongly condemned Saturday's attacks on the joint United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), describing it as a "cowardly and deliberate" act.
Ping said in a statement that the attack came at a time when renewed efforts were underway to speed up the full deployment of UNAMID.
In the statement, he reiterated the Pan-African body, working closely with the United Nations, would do whatever it can to continue to support the peace efforts in Sudan's Darfur region.
A Senegalese officer, serving with the UN-AU peacekeeping force, died on Monday, two days after being shot in the leg during a carjacking in the Sudanese region. The incident happened on Saturday night at a market in the capital of North Darfur, El Fasher, which is also the headquarters of UNAMID, deployed earlier this year.
The man was one of three UNAMID officers who were car-jacked by three unknown armed men. The officers were forced to leave their vehicle and, in the process, one was shot. The car-jackers then drove off to the north with the vehicle.
The incident is the latest in a series of attacks against aid workers and the joint peacekeeping force, which lost more than 20 personnel in its first year of operation.