UNITED NATIONS, Dec 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Two UN peacekeepers from Nigeria were killed and four others wounded in an attack Friday on a peace patrol in the town of Timbuktu in northern Mali, the United Nations said.
The UN Security Council said a member of Mali’s security forces was also killed in the attack.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said one of the peacekeepers killed was a woman.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council strongly condemned the attack.
The council stressed that involvement in planning, directing, sponsoring or conducting attacks targeting UN peacekeepers may constitute war crimes.
In BAMAKO, Mali’s capital, Head of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali El-Ghassim Wane said he was “deeply shocked by this heinous act,” which he strongly condemned.
“Despite a difficult operational environment, the UN mission will spare no effort to carry out its mandate,” he said. By its resolution 2640 (2022), the UN Security Council extended the mandate of MINUSMA until June 30, 2023.
Mali has been in turmoil since a 2012 uprising when mutinous soldiers overthrew the president. The power vacuum that resulted ultimately led to a jihadist insurgency and a French-led war that ousted the jihadists from power in 2013.
Insurgents remain active in Mali and extremist groups affiliated with al-Qaida and the Daesh group have moved from the arid north to more populated central Mali since 2015, stoking animosity and violence between ethnic groups in the region.
Tensions have grown between Mali, its African neighbors and the West since Mali’s government allowed Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group to deploy on its territory.
Since 2012, Mali has been engulfed in a deep multi-faceted crisis at security, political and economic levels. Independence insurgencies, jihadist incursions and intercommunal violence have left thousands dead and hundreds of thousands more displaced in the West African nation. — NNN-AGENCIES
