UN chief, Ghana condemn attack on peacekeepers in Lebanon
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Guterres "condemns the incident on Friday, March 6, which resulted in three Ghanaian peacekeepers of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) being injured inside their position in Al Qawzah, southwestern Lebanon".
Infographic with satellite images showing damage at a selection of four US military sites, or sites hosting US personnel, in the Middle East in the context of Iranian strikes since February 28, 2026. (AFP)
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GENEVA — United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Ghana condemned on Saturday an attack a day earlier on a UN base in southern Lebanon that seriously wounded three Ghanaian UN peacekeepers.
Ghana said it had lodged a formal complaint with the UN.
It demanded, "that those responsible be identified and held accountable, as the attack constitutes a grave violation of international law, amounts to war crime and affronts the protections afforded to United Nations peacekeeping personnel".
The Lebanese president, Joseph Aoun, has accused Israel of targeting them, and the UN peacekeeping force has said it will investigate.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Guterres "condemns the incident on Friday, March 6, which resulted in three Ghanaian peacekeepers of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) being injured inside their position in Al Qawzah, southwestern Lebanon".
"The Secretary General underscores that the safety and security of UN personnel and property must be respected at all times, and that those responsible must be held accountable. The inviolability of UN installations must be respected by all."
In its formal complaint to the UN, the Ghanaian government called for a "full, immediate, impartial and transparent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the attack on personnel deployed in the service of international peace and security".
It said the officers' mess building inside UNFIL base had been burned to the ground in the strike.
The attack occurred during an exchange of fire between Israel and Iran-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah.
The international UN peacekeeping force has acted as a buffer between Israel and Lebanon since 1978.
On Friday, the UN demanded swift investigations into waves of fatal Israeli strikes across Lebanon.
Dujarric said the UN urged the parties to the conflict "to de-escalate immediately and fully adhere to their obligations under (UN) Security Council resolution 1701".
The UN resolution was designed to end a conflict in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah. It served as the basis for a ceasefire agreement in 2024 between Hezbollah and Israel.