3 hours ago
Two Egyptian peacekeepers in Mali were killed and five others seriously injured, on Tuesday, when an explosive device planted on the side of a road in the north of the country detonated in front of their vehicle.
“This morning, an armored vehicle in the MINUSMA supply convoy hit a mine on a highway between the cities of Tessalit and Gao, and the incident may constitute a war crime,” the UN mission in Mali said.
The mission added in a statement that the wounded were evacuated after dispatching a rapid intervention force to the scene of the accident.
The mission, known as MINUSMA, affirmed that it “strongly condemns this attack, which may constitute a war crime under international law, and notes with concern the repeated use by terrorist groups of improvised explosive devices to paralyze the mission’s operations and impede the return of peace and stability.”
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations extended his sincere condolences to the Egyptian government, as well as to the families and colleagues of the two soldiers, wishing a speedy recovery to the injured.
In its statement, the mission stated that “mines and improvised explosive devices planted by extremist fighters have indiscriminately affected United Nations personnel, the military, the Malian Defense and Security Forces, civilians and the communities we serve.”
For its part, it called on the Malian authorities to spare no effort to identify the perpetrators of these attacks so that they can be brought quickly to justice.
MINUSMA – the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali – is one of the largest missions of the United Nations forces.
The mission in Mali includes 13,289 soldiers and 1,920 police.
Over the past decade, 177 of its soldiers have been killed in hostilities, including four in June. Eight peacekeepers were wounded in a mine explosion in the Timbuktu region on the 23rd of the same month.
photo released, LIONEL BONAVENTURE
Soldiers from the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA)
On the 29th of last month, the United Nations Security Council extended the mandate of the force for a year. There is concern that peacekeepers may be more vulnerable without French air support after France’s decision to withdraw from Mali following a row with military leaders who carried out two coups in the country.
The militants joined a regional insurgency in northern Mali in 2012, and their campaigns have spread to the center of the country and neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.
Thousands of civilians were killed, more than two million people fled their homes, and the terrorist acts of sabotage caused economic damage to the country, which is one of the poorest in the world.