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Attack on UN convoy kills two drivers in Mali

Saturday, 18 April 2015 5:26 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 18 April 2015 5:27 PM ]

A picture taken on April 8, 2015 shows a UN peacekeeper standing guard in the Independence Square in Timbuktu, northern Mali. (© AFP)

A group of gunmen has ambushed a United Nations (UN) peacekeeping supply convoy in troubled northern Mali, shooting dead at least two drivers and wounding a third person.

The UN Mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, said in a statement on Saturday that the deadly attack took place some 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the main city of Gao.

After stopping the convoy, “the assailants shot the two drivers before setting the vehicles on fire late Friday night,” the statement read.

One team member was shot and wounded but managed to escape with others, the statement added.

In another attack on a UN base in the town of Ansongo in northern Mali on Wednesday, at least three civilians were killed and 16 peacekeepers seriously injured.

Forensic investigators walk toward a restaurant in Bamako, where five people, including a French and a Belgian national, were shot dead overnight in a suspected terrorist attack, Mali, March 7, 2015. (© AFP)

The UN mission has not announced what group was responsible for the latest fatal assault.

However, an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group has launched numerous attacks across the region in recent years.

The UN mission in Mali was established after the UN Security Council adopted resolution 2100 on April 25, 2013. It is tasked with security-related operations in the African country.

Mali slid into chaos after then President Amadou Toumani Toure was toppled in a military coup in March 2012.

The coup leaders said the move was in response to the government’s inability to contain a rebellion by Tuareg people in the north of the country.

The current Malian government has intensified its efforts for a peace deal with the Tuareg militants, who keep fighting the Malian army for control over Azawad, a northern territory they claim as their homeland.

The militants view France and some other European governments as the main backers of Bamako in the suppression of ethnic movements across the West African country.

JR/HJL/SS

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