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BRUSSELS, March 10 (AFP) - Two Belgian UN troops were slightly injured in Rwanda on Thursday when their helicopter crashed, apparently after flying into a power line, the Belgian foreign ministry announced.
The Alouette II helicopter with three men aboard crashed about 10 kilometres (six miles) north of Kigali, the capital of the small central African highland nation, a ministry statement said.
Belgium has sent 435 troops to serve in the 1,200-strong UN Assistance Mission in Rwanda (MINUAR), which has been gripped by civil war and ethnic strife between the majority Hutus and minority Tutus.
Rebels of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR) last August signed a peace pact with the government, but, amid political upheaval, a new enlarged cabinet including the FPR has yet to be formed.
Thursday's accident came the day Belgian Defence Minister Leo Delcroix was awaited in Rwanda for a three-day official visit.
Officials in Kigali said Delcroix would have talks with President Juvenal Habyarimana, Prime Minister Agathe Uwilingiyimana, UN envoy Jacques-Roger Booh-Booh and the MINUAR chief, General Romeo Dallaire.
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