Africa

Africa

Five UN peacekeepers among 8 troops killed in Mali attacks

13 February 2016 01:23 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Five United Nations peacekeepers were killed and some 30 others wounded when suspected Islamists attacked their base in Mali's restive north Friday, as three Malian soldiers perished in an ambush in the same region, the UN chief and security sources said, APA reports quoting AFP.

The latest attacks highlighted the vulnerability of the sprawling arid north, where UN peacekeepers and Malian soldiers are struggling in their fight against jihadists who seized vast swathes of territory in 2012.

UN Secretary general Ban Ki-moon condemned the "massive" assault on the base of the UN mission in Mali, or MINUSMA, in the strategic town of Kidal and recalled that targeting peacekeepers constitutes a war crime.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said some of the peacekeepers who were killed were from Guinea and that there "may be other nationalities involved", describing the attack early Friday as a "massive and complex one."

Two Guinean soldiers died on the spot. Two other soldiers, among seven seriously wounded, died later of their injuries, a Guinean source said.

The source said a vehicle "carrying suicide bombers entered the camp shortly the assailants fired rockets."

The raid coincided with a visit to the region by the new chief of MINUSMA, Mahamat Saleh Annadif, who began touring the north on Monday.