http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07E0DB1030F935A35751C1A96F9C8B63

Gunmen killed five Rwandan soldiers in two attacks on the international peacekeeping force in the Darfur region of Sudan, a spokesman for the mission said Saturday.

The attacks, on Friday and Saturday, struck peacekeepers from the United Nations-African Union force, which deployed nearly two years ago to protect civilians and improve security in Darfur, where rebels are fighting government forces and their allies.

In Saturday's attack, the gunmen approached the gate of a camp for people displaced by the conflict and shot at peacekeepers who were distributing water, said a spokesman for the force, Kemal Saiki. The camp is about 40 miles south of El Fasher, the capital of northern Darfur.

In Friday's attack, near a government checkpoint, gunmen fired on a convoy of Rwandan peacekeepers escorting a water tanker near the northern town of Saraf Umra. The force fired back, wounding an assailant, but the attackers escaped, Mr. Saiki said.

The attackers' motives are unclear, but they might have been trying to steal the troops' vehicles, he said.

The attacks bring to 22 the number of peacekeepers killed since the joint force deployed in January 2008.

Fighting between rebels and Sudanese government forces began in Darfur in 2003, killing up to 300,000 people and driving 2.7 million from their homes. The government says those figures are exaggerated.