UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 29 -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon said on Sunday that he was "appalled" by another armed attack against a peacekeeping mission in Sudan's Darfur region, and called on the Sudanese government to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Unidentified armed assailants on Sunday attacked a convoy of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur ( UNAMID) near Greida, south Darfur, killing a Jordanian and a Senegalese peacekeeper, Ban's spokesperson said in a statement.

"The Secretary-General condemns in the strongest terms this cowardly attack on UNAMID peacekeepers and expects the government of Sudan to swiftly bring to justice those responsible for this and previous attacks on UNAMID," said the statement.

Ban also expressed his sincere condolences to the families of the fallen peacekeepers and to the governments of Senegal and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

The latest attack brings to 16 the number of UNAMID peacekeepers killed this year, according to UN figure. It follows an attack last month in north Darfur which left one Rwandan peacekeeper dead.

Established by the Security Council in 2007, UNAMID is in charge of, among other tasks, the protection of civilians and contributing to security for humanitarian assistance in Darfur, where fighting between rebel groups and government forces and allied militia has led to the deaths of an estimated 300,000 people and displaced nearly two million over the past 10 years.