South Sudanese rebels have denied that they shot down a UN helicopter near the capital of oil-rich Unity state recently.

On 9 September, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) announced that a South Sudanese opposition commander threatened to gun down the Mi-8 UN helicopter prior to its crash.

The UN said, however, that it was too early in the investigation process to conclusively apportion any blame for the shooting down of the helicopter.

Three Russian crewmen died in the attack on the UN chopper on 26 August and a fourth was injured.

The SPM-IO military spokesman Lul Ruai told Radio Tamazuj Thursday that General Gadet was just threatening and that he did not attack the helicopter.

Lul pointed out that many UN aircrafts have been landing in areas under their control and no single helicopter was gunned down.

He described the claims as “baseless”. He stressed that General Gadet had nothing to do with the crash of UN helicopter.

In late August, the SPLA spokesman Col. Philip Aguer also accused rebels under the command of Peter Gatdet of bringing down the Mi-8 helicopter at Tong area, about 10km south of Bentiu.

File photo: Peter Gadet with Riek Machar earlier in 2014

Related coverage:

SPLM-IO general threatened to shoot down UNMISS aircraft (10 Sept.)