A total of 42 United Nations personnel were killed while performing their duties in 2007, including 17 killed by the bombing attacks in Algiers last month, the UN said Wednesday. The dead included nine peacekeepers killed in Sudan, Lebanon, Uganda and Afghanistan. "While we mourn our colleagues and the other civilians killed, we cannot but stress the need for prevention and punishment," said Stephen Kisambira, the president of the UN staff union. He called the high death toll the "deadliest in years", according to DPA. The 17 UN staff killed in Algiers on December 11 represented the highest death toll since the UN mission in Baghdad was blown up in August, 2003, killing 22 people, including the high profile head of mission, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
