KIGALI, July 10, 2008 (AFP) - Five Rwandan soldiers were among the seven killed in Sudan's Darfur region when suspected militiamen ambushed a convoy of the joint African Union-UN peacekeeping force, a report said Thursday.

'Five members of the army serving in the hybrid (AU-UN) force in Darfur died when the convoy they were escorting fell into an ambush,' Rwandan army spokesman Jules Rutaremara was quoted as saying in the New Times newspaper.

He said 17 other Rwandan soldiers were wounded in the attack, adding that the force (UNAMID) was ill-equipped to face heavily armed attackers. The UN said 22 people were wounded in the attack Tuesday, seven critically.

It was the deadliest strike yet on the six-month-old mission, which has suffered a string of attacks since it took control from an African Union force in Darfur, gripped by escalating insecurity and banditry.

Uganda's government earlier identified one of the dead as a Ugandan police officer.

UN officials in Sudan said a Ghanaian was among the dead, and that other peacekeepers from Ghana, Senegal and South Africa were among the wounded.