Gunmen killed a South African peacekeeper with the UN-led mission in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region and seriously wounded a female soldier, a spokesperson said on Thursday.

The latest death brings to a dozen the number of peacekeepers for the understaffed joint African Union-United Nations force to have died since the mission launched operations on 31 December, 2007, spokesperson Noureddine Mezni said.

Unknown attackers opened fire on the two South African soldiers about a kilometre out from a military base for mission in northern Darfur on Wednesday.

A male South African peacekeeper died and the woman soldier — who was shot in the chest — was evacuated for medical treatment in El Fasher, Unamid headquarters and the state capital of North Darfur, officials said.

"Unknown armed men opened fire yesterday afternoon at a water point near Unamid camp in Kutum. They were evacuated to our base in Kutum. The man died and the female soldier is still alive," Mezni told AFP.

UN officials said reports varied on the number of attackers, with some describing them as a "group of men" and others "two men".

"The attackers fled. The wounded soldier is in a stable condition and we're trying to find out who did this and why. Apparently nothing was taken. The details were still very foggy," said public information director Kemal Saiki.

It was the second deadly shooting this month against peacekeepers in Darfur, where the Sudanese government has been fighting an insurgency by "ethnic" rebels for nearly six years.

A Nigerian sergeant was killed on 7 October when up to 60 gunmen ambushed a patrol in South Darfur.

The Darfur conflict broke out in 2003 when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum and state-backed militias.

Since then, the conflict has disintegrated into a maze of fraying rebel groups, banditry, tribal conflict and flip-flopping militias.

UN officials say up to 300 000 people have died and more than 2.2-million have been displaced. Khartoum puts the number of dead at 10 000.

Seven peacekeepers died and 22 were wounded on 8 July, the deadliest single ambush since the United Nations assumed command of peacekeeping in Darfur.

AFP