(Adds peacekeeper was unarmed, UNAMID statement, edits)

By Cynthia Johnston

KHARTOUM, May 29 (Reuters) - An unarmed Ugandan police officer working for international peacekeeping forces in Sudan's Darfur region has been shot dead, a spokesman for the UNAMID force said on Thursday.

The Ugandan is the first international peacekeeper to be killed in Darfur since joint U.N./African Union (UNAMID) troops took over from a beleaguered African force at the start of the year, the spokesman said. Others have died of natural causes.

The peacekeeper's body was found in his car on Wednesday evening near a market in the North Darfur capital of El Fasher. He had been shot several times, spokesman Noureddine Mezni said.

A UNAMID statement identified the officer as Inspector John Kennedy Okecha, and descibed his death as a "cold blooded murder". Mezni said Okecha was an UNAMID police adviser.

Ugandan police, who had earlier identified Okecha by a slightly different name, said he was ambushed on his way back to his base at the airport in El Fasher, home to UNAMID headquarters.

Law and order has collapsed in Darfur where U.N. officials say five years of ethnic and political conflict have killed up to 300,000 people and driven 2.5 million from their homes. Khartoum puts the death count at 10,000 and accuses Western media of exaggerating the conflict.

"We are peacekeepers. We are not here to participate in the conflict, so it is a shock to receive news of what happened," Mezni said.

NO BELONGINGS TAKEN

None of Okecha's belongings were taken from his car, and it was too early to ascribe blame or a motive for the attack, Mezni said. An investigation was under way. Sudan's state news agency SUNA described the killing as a "criminal" act.

The United Nations has said the Darfur peacekeeping force remains poorly equipped and seriously undermanned. Only 9,000 of a promised 26,000-strong force are on the ground in a remote region in Sudan's west about the size of France.

"We have over 100 peacekeepers in UNAMID in Darfur and we will determine what to do next after a U.N. team investigating the killing provides us with a report," Ugandan police spokeswoman Judith Nabakooba said after the killing. Overall, around 60 international peacekeepers have been killed since they first arrived in Darfur in 2004. Last week, 45 Nigerians died in a road crash in Nigeria after returning from duties in Darfur.

Just over a week ago, heavily armed men on horseback ambushed a patrol of peacekeepers in West Darfur, taking weapons from Nigerian troops. No one was hurt.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon strongly condemned that attack and urged all parties to cease military action and commit themselves to negotiations and a peaceful solution in Darfur.

Peace negotiations between Sudan's government and Darfur rebels were left in ruins this month when the insurgent Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) launched a shock attack on Khartoum. Government officials vowed they would never negotiate with JEM after the attack. (Writing by Cynthia Johnston; Additional reporting by Frank Nyakairu in Kampala; Editing by Robert Woodward)

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