DAKAR, Senegal
At least one United Nations peacekeeper was killed and four others seriously injured when their patrol was attacked in northern Mali on Friday, the peacekeeping mission MINUSMA said.
The incident took place near
the town of Ber, in the region of Timbuktu - an area that has become a hotbed
of jihadist activity over the past decade.
MINUSMA said on Twitter the
patrol first encountered an improvised explosive device and was then hit with a
direct fire attack.
It did not name perpetrators
but said it was a "complex attack" and that updates on casualties
would follow.
Islamist militants, some with
links to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, have been waging an insurgency in
northern Mali since they hijacked a Tuareg rebellion in 2012.
The violence has spread across
the Sahel region under the Sahara and beyond despite international military
interventions to help local troops fight back.
Thousands have been killed and
over six million displaced by the fighting, according to the U.N.
MINUSMA - the United Nations
Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali - currently has about
12,000 military personnel deployed in the country.
At least 303 MINUSMA personnel
have been killed in hostile acts in Mali since the start of the mission in
2013, making it the deadliest U.N. peacekeeping mission in the world.
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